A Must "Bookmark" in Mackinaw City, before or after Pizza!
After many annual October Fall visits to Mackinaw City, I was pleased to have visited this Michigan Historical Museum on October 19, 2019.
It is located upstairs above the pizza business MaMa Mia's therefore my idea was to walk off my delicious pizza lunch, read and learn about the history in the building of the Mighty Mackinaw Bridge.
This museum is phenomenal about the history in the building of the Mackinaw Bridge 1954-1958.
When walking upstairs there are walls and walls of photos naming the many dedicated, skilled, talented iron workers. Their used equipment of helmets, work gear, tools and details is emotional too at the same time to see and read. They faced their dangerous jobs daily before, during and after the completion plus a few deaths did occurr throughout the construction.
Free Admission
Free Movie is played for your history lesson while relaxing in comfortable chairs as well.
I wrote down facts and information last year to help my review.. :-) There was 11,000 International Iron Workers, other tradesmen, and engineers that were dedicated, hard working and skilled employees to start the construction ground breaking on May 7, 1954. They all risked their lives daily, weekly and monthly for three years on the job before opening the bridge to traffic on November 1, 1957. (During the construction in the 1950's five men died)
The Mackinaw Bridge construction went on into 1958 with 3,500 workers, 895,000 structural and blueprint drawings.
They used:
71,300 tons of steel
42,000 miles of cable wire
931,000 tons of concrete
4,851,700 steel rivets
1,016,600 steel bolts
and over 90,000,00 dollars
The metal structure is one of eight land based survey towers, which were used along with six water based towers.
My review plus photos, describes only half of this business. A guest needs to make a trip to Michigan and put on your list of places to visit this "Mackinaw Bridge Museum" for yourself.
Then afterwards take a drive over the Mackinaw Bridge to see, feel and understand the history of how the bridge was built. I enjoy it yearly in the Summer or Fall! :-)
I will always look forward to visiting this museum when in Mackinaw City, in case I missed a part of the history story. Then to remember, reflect, honor those past brave and talented Iron Workers that dedicated their lives to build The Mighty Mackinaw Bridge! read more