Even though ek hornbeck spent most of his life in Stars Hollow, he was born in Michigan and had family there. We visited once, on a sad occasion, and our time was limited but we often talked about taking a trip back to explore some of the places he had visited during his summer vacations with his family. One of those places would have taken us across the Mackinac Bridge which connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
The Mackinac Bridge (/ˈmækɪnɔː/ MAK-in-aw) is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac to connect the Upper and Lower peninsulas of the U.S. state of Michigan. Opened in 1957, the 26,372-foot-long (4.995 mi; 8.038 km) bridge (familiarly known as “Big Mac” and “Mighty Mac“) is the world’s 24th-longest main span and the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere. The Mackinac Bridge is part of Interstate 75 (I-75) and the Lake Michigan and Huron components of the Great Lakes Circle Tour across the straits; it is also a segment of the U.S. North Country National Scenic Trail. The bridge connects the city of St. Ignace on the north end with the village of Mackinaw City on the south.
Envisioned since the 1880s, the bridge was designed by the engineer David B. Steinman and completed in 1957 only after many decades of struggles to begin construction. [..]
The design of the Mackinac Bridge was directly influenced by the lessons from the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which failed in 1940 because of its instability in high winds. Three years after that disaster, Steinman had published a theoretical analysis of suspension-bridge stability problems, which recommended that future bridge designs include deep stiffening trusses to support the bridge deck and an open-grid roadway to reduce its wind resistance. Both of these features were incorporated into the design of the Mackinac Bridge. The stiffening truss is open to reduce wind resistance. The road deck is shaped as an airfoil to provide lift in a cross wind, and the center two lanes are open grid to allow vertical (upward) air flow, which fairly precisely cancels the lift, making the roadway stable in design in winds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h). [..]
The Mackinac Bridge Walk has been held each year since 1958, when it was led by Governor G. Mennen Williams. The first walk was held during the Bridge’s Dedication Ceremony held in late June, and has been held on Labor Day since 1959. Until 2018, school buses from local districts transported walkers from Mackinaw City to St. Ignace to begin the walk. Thousands of people, traditionally led by the Governor of Michigan, cross the five-mile (8 km) span on foot from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City. Before 1964, people walked the Bridge from Mackinaw City to St. Ignace. Prior to 2017, two lanes of the bridge would remain open to public vehicle traffic; this policy was changed in 2017 to close the entire bridge to public vehicle traffic for the duration of the event. The Bridge Walk is the only day of the year that hikers can hike this section of the North Country National Scenic Trail.
TMC for ek hornbeck