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Mighty Mac: The Official Picture History of the Mackinac Bridge
With a total span length of 8,344 feet from anchor block to anchor block, the Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world. It surpasses the Golden Gate Bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and the Humber Bridge in England, even with their longer center spans.
Every phase of construction of the Mackinac Bridge was photographed. The pictures in this book, selected from 3,000 black-and-white photos, document important stages of the monumental undertaking. Captions detail the procedures used during construction. The result is a volume which captures the struggles and the hardships, as well as the determination and the pride of the men who labored to build Mighty Mac.
Every phase of construction of the Mackinac Bridge was photographed. The pictures in this book, selected from 3,000 black-and-white photos, document important stages of the monumental undertaking. Captions detail the procedures used during construction. The result is a volume which captures the struggles and the hardships, as well as the determination and the pride of the men who labored to build Mighty Mac.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 17, 2019
A very quick reading but very well-done pictorial history of the construction of one of the most impressive bridges on earth, the Mackinac Bridge. After about twenty pages of text, the book is all about the black and white photographs, 204 numbered photographs (and a few diagrams) with paragraph long captions for each illustration describing the construction of the bridge from the certified check for $96,400,033.33 to begin construction and the views of cars awaiting the ferry to cross the Straits (ferry capacity was 460 cars per hour, while the bridge would later handle 6,000 cars per hour; waits of five hours to cross were apparently commonplace) to the various ceremonies attached to the bridge opening on November 1, 1957.
The earlier section of about twenty pages was informative and also filled with a great deal of praise, something a bit jarring to read though it was definitely a most impressive project. The foreword for instance, written by G. Mennen Williams, Governor of Michigan, writes the “bridge across the Straits of Mackinac ranks with the pyramids, the great hydro-electric dams, the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the Panama and Suez canals, as one of the wondrous works of the hand and brain of man,” going on to describe it as “a manifestation of the indomitable will of men to realize their dreams.” Use of man aside, it was great to hear such boundless optimism and pride, something that seems relatively rare these days and when anything like it does appear is attached to much smaller projects.
The introduction was interesting, telling a good deal of the history of the exploration and colonization of Michigan, particularly as it related to the Straits. The writer of the introduction – Frank B. Woodford – noted how the Straits presented a barrier even to Native Americans, eager for copper from the Upper Peninsula, noting that even when the Straits weren’t a barrier they were never a crossing place, but rather a passage to other places (and that for years the “lower part of Michigan remained a dark continent” and that not “until after the War of 1812 was there a serious, organized attempt to penetrate the curtain of darkness which enshrouded the Michigan north country,” a somewhat Eurocentric view that while accurate as far as European ancestry explorers went seems unlikely to be used today).
Woodford went on to discuss the lack of appreciation many in the Lower Peninsula had for the rich resources of the Upper Peninsula for many years and even when such appreciation did finally appear, how the two lands were not well connected, as “it was virtually impossible to travel from one peninsula to the other,” as for many years much of the trade to and from the Upper Peninsula was more oriented towards “Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago, instead of to Lower Peninsula cities.” Detailing a bit of the difficult nature of crossing even with a dedicated ferry fleet, something the rise of the automobile encouraged if not demanded, the ships “fell far short of meeting the heavy demands placed on them.” Interestingly World War II halted an early bridge project, one that resulted in a causeway constructed in 1941, never completed but did prove beneficial to the later bridge (saving $3,000,000 in construction costs).
The final section of text before the photographs was written by the designer of the bridge, D. B. Steinman (there are also several photographs of him in the book as there should be). He discussed how and why he designed certain aspects of this five mile long bridge and was sort of maybe a lot bragging in the section, but I think reading other parts of the book he was trying to reassure those who doubted the safety and wisdom of the project as there were fears that the rock of the area or the ice or the winds would prove too much for the bridge (stating again and again how he went vastly beyond even the worst known conditions that the bridge might face in its lifetime). He certainly sold me, describing why certain features were the way they were (the open design for instance would “eliminate the closed corners in which pressure concentrations are producible by wind and they also eliminate the solid areas on which such pressure differences would otherwise act to produce oscillations of the span”). He certainly sold me, noting that he was well aware of the “galloping” and “twisting’ that destroyed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 and also in passing noting that he had built 400 other bridges around the world. Definitely the man I would want to design and build a bridge! He certainly thinks a lot about the bridge, writing:
“Michigan’s bridge is not only a scientific and economic triumph. It is also an artistic achievement.”
Can’t say I blame him though. It seems very impressive!
The remainder of the book are the photographs. If you ever wanted to know how a suspension bridge is built, well, this is the book for you. Every stage of the process was documented with photographs. Many were surprisingly artistic, with either beautiful images of the cables or other parts of the bridge stretching off into the distance or heroic, Iwo Jima-esque poses of men constructing the bridge or ships and even a sailboat sailing past the towers or other scenes of bridge construction. A lot of the technical details while I felt I understood probably didn’t impress me as much as they should, but I still learned a lot (for instance there are two general methods of marine foundation construction, cofferdam and caisson, and both were used on the construction of the Mackinac Bridge, that the aggregates or crushed stone for the foundations “had to be of a specific size, hardness, and cleanliness” as they were “washed two or three times to remove fine dust particles,” that one base plate for the towers was only four inches high but weighed 13 tons, that inside the tower where workers backed the rivets driven from the outside it was pitch black, illuminated only by flashlights and miner’s lamp on their safely helmets, that 55,500 coils of steel wire for the cables were needed, each reel weighing 16 tons, containing 320,000 feet of wire that was .192 inches in diameter, and that each wire was individual adjusted but only at night “when the temperature was constant and the wires not likely to contract or expand depending on the location of the sun”).
I read the book in about an hour or two and it was interesting. I honesty had no idea how a suspension bridge was built at all and I didn’t know about the controversy attached to building the bridge nor that there was a previous attempt at constructing it.
The earlier section of about twenty pages was informative and also filled with a great deal of praise, something a bit jarring to read though it was definitely a most impressive project. The foreword for instance, written by G. Mennen Williams, Governor of Michigan, writes the “bridge across the Straits of Mackinac ranks with the pyramids, the great hydro-electric dams, the skyscrapers of Manhattan, the Panama and Suez canals, as one of the wondrous works of the hand and brain of man,” going on to describe it as “a manifestation of the indomitable will of men to realize their dreams.” Use of man aside, it was great to hear such boundless optimism and pride, something that seems relatively rare these days and when anything like it does appear is attached to much smaller projects.
The introduction was interesting, telling a good deal of the history of the exploration and colonization of Michigan, particularly as it related to the Straits. The writer of the introduction – Frank B. Woodford – noted how the Straits presented a barrier even to Native Americans, eager for copper from the Upper Peninsula, noting that even when the Straits weren’t a barrier they were never a crossing place, but rather a passage to other places (and that for years the “lower part of Michigan remained a dark continent” and that not “until after the War of 1812 was there a serious, organized attempt to penetrate the curtain of darkness which enshrouded the Michigan north country,” a somewhat Eurocentric view that while accurate as far as European ancestry explorers went seems unlikely to be used today).
Woodford went on to discuss the lack of appreciation many in the Lower Peninsula had for the rich resources of the Upper Peninsula for many years and even when such appreciation did finally appear, how the two lands were not well connected, as “it was virtually impossible to travel from one peninsula to the other,” as for many years much of the trade to and from the Upper Peninsula was more oriented towards “Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago, instead of to Lower Peninsula cities.” Detailing a bit of the difficult nature of crossing even with a dedicated ferry fleet, something the rise of the automobile encouraged if not demanded, the ships “fell far short of meeting the heavy demands placed on them.” Interestingly World War II halted an early bridge project, one that resulted in a causeway constructed in 1941, never completed but did prove beneficial to the later bridge (saving $3,000,000 in construction costs).
The final section of text before the photographs was written by the designer of the bridge, D. B. Steinman (there are also several photographs of him in the book as there should be). He discussed how and why he designed certain aspects of this five mile long bridge and was sort of maybe a lot bragging in the section, but I think reading other parts of the book he was trying to reassure those who doubted the safety and wisdom of the project as there were fears that the rock of the area or the ice or the winds would prove too much for the bridge (stating again and again how he went vastly beyond even the worst known conditions that the bridge might face in its lifetime). He certainly sold me, describing why certain features were the way they were (the open design for instance would “eliminate the closed corners in which pressure concentrations are producible by wind and they also eliminate the solid areas on which such pressure differences would otherwise act to produce oscillations of the span”). He certainly sold me, noting that he was well aware of the “galloping” and “twisting’ that destroyed the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 and also in passing noting that he had built 400 other bridges around the world. Definitely the man I would want to design and build a bridge! He certainly thinks a lot about the bridge, writing:
“Michigan’s bridge is not only a scientific and economic triumph. It is also an artistic achievement.”
Can’t say I blame him though. It seems very impressive!
The remainder of the book are the photographs. If you ever wanted to know how a suspension bridge is built, well, this is the book for you. Every stage of the process was documented with photographs. Many were surprisingly artistic, with either beautiful images of the cables or other parts of the bridge stretching off into the distance or heroic, Iwo Jima-esque poses of men constructing the bridge or ships and even a sailboat sailing past the towers or other scenes of bridge construction. A lot of the technical details while I felt I understood probably didn’t impress me as much as they should, but I still learned a lot (for instance there are two general methods of marine foundation construction, cofferdam and caisson, and both were used on the construction of the Mackinac Bridge, that the aggregates or crushed stone for the foundations “had to be of a specific size, hardness, and cleanliness” as they were “washed two or three times to remove fine dust particles,” that one base plate for the towers was only four inches high but weighed 13 tons, that inside the tower where workers backed the rivets driven from the outside it was pitch black, illuminated only by flashlights and miner’s lamp on their safely helmets, that 55,500 coils of steel wire for the cables were needed, each reel weighing 16 tons, containing 320,000 feet of wire that was .192 inches in diameter, and that each wire was individual adjusted but only at night “when the temperature was constant and the wires not likely to contract or expand depending on the location of the sun”).
I read the book in about an hour or two and it was interesting. I honesty had no idea how a suspension bridge was built at all and I didn’t know about the controversy attached to building the bridge nor that there was a previous attempt at constructing it.
January 7, 2019
"A Bridge of Peace, Wrought of the Dreams of Man!"
An artistically engineered marvel, the Mackinac Bridge connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan, traversing the Straits of Mackinac. This beautiful bridge is built with ivory painted towers and green trusses, sharing the juxtaposed lines of the Michigan Pines against the stark countryside in Winter; snow-covered trunks laced with evergreen.
The title for my review was a direct quote taken from a moving poem by David B. Steinman about the Mackinac Bridge, shared at the beginning of this book. And, the rest of the book was just as intriguing. It is filled with photos that have descriptive text explaining the building process from start to finish. There are also informative sections at the beginning about the history of Michigan, and an article by the Designer explaining how he ensured the bridge's safety in design. He also talked about his first job as a paperboy, selling papers under the Brooklyn Bridge. He said he told the other paperboys that one day he would build bridges like that, and they laughed at him. But, the whole book was a learning experience for me; both about bridge design and Michigan's commerce and history. Having never been to that region of the country, I am fortunate to have had my husband to answer questions, and help me with the pronunciation of place names. He is a native Michigander.
I had ordered this nice hardback from a third party seller on Amazon on the 26th of December, so I was not really surprised at a delay. But, it spent 8 days in Atlanta oddly bouncing between sort facilities, so when I finally received the book today on the 5th, I was more than glad to cross this bridge to begin my Journey Around the World in 80 Books for 2019. This bridge represents one of the crowning engineering designs of my home country, the United States, and is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere today. My next stop is water under the bridge... the Great Lakes, my stop for Canada.
This classic was published in 1958, which is attested to by the black and white photos. It is certainly something worth many hours of enjoyment. The book info has been entered incorrectly into Goodreads previously. I have an earlier hardback edition published in 1958, which should be shown as the earliest date of publication on this entry. This can be verified from the Amazon entries, as well as inside the book. I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys reading about engineering marvels, the Michigan area, or bridge design.
An artistically engineered marvel, the Mackinac Bridge connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan, traversing the Straits of Mackinac. This beautiful bridge is built with ivory painted towers and green trusses, sharing the juxtaposed lines of the Michigan Pines against the stark countryside in Winter; snow-covered trunks laced with evergreen.
"The suspension span framed by the two lofty towers is 'a harp outstretched against the sky,' 'a net outspread to hold the stars.' The bridge as a whole is a 'symphony in steel and stone,' a 'poem stretched across the Straits.'"
The title for my review was a direct quote taken from a moving poem by David B. Steinman about the Mackinac Bridge, shared at the beginning of this book. And, the rest of the book was just as intriguing. It is filled with photos that have descriptive text explaining the building process from start to finish. There are also informative sections at the beginning about the history of Michigan, and an article by the Designer explaining how he ensured the bridge's safety in design. He also talked about his first job as a paperboy, selling papers under the Brooklyn Bridge. He said he told the other paperboys that one day he would build bridges like that, and they laughed at him. But, the whole book was a learning experience for me; both about bridge design and Michigan's commerce and history. Having never been to that region of the country, I am fortunate to have had my husband to answer questions, and help me with the pronunciation of place names. He is a native Michigander.
I had ordered this nice hardback from a third party seller on Amazon on the 26th of December, so I was not really surprised at a delay. But, it spent 8 days in Atlanta oddly bouncing between sort facilities, so when I finally received the book today on the 5th, I was more than glad to cross this bridge to begin my Journey Around the World in 80 Books for 2019. This bridge represents one of the crowning engineering designs of my home country, the United States, and is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere today. My next stop is water under the bridge... the Great Lakes, my stop for Canada.
This classic was published in 1958, which is attested to by the black and white photos. It is certainly something worth many hours of enjoyment. The book info has been entered incorrectly into Goodreads previously. I have an earlier hardback edition published in 1958, which should be shown as the earliest date of publication on this entry. This can be verified from the Amazon entries, as well as inside the book. I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys reading about engineering marvels, the Michigan area, or bridge design.
January 6, 2019
As someone that has crossed that bridge, I can attest to the awesome nature of the Mackinac Bridge that connects the two peninsulas that make up the state of Michigan. At the time of writing, it was the longest total suspension bridge in the world and driving across it really gets and keeps your attention.
Every step in the building process was photographed and this book is a record of that impressive engineering feat. There were some professionals that did not believe that such a bridge could be constructed, given the porous nature of the rock and the frequent harsh weather conditions. Yet, the decision was made, and the bridge has proven to be an economic lifeline to the state of Michigan as well as a key transit point in the movement of goods between the U. S. and Canada.
Reading about the construction of the bridge is also a reminder about the critical need for major construction projects and how they can be of such long-term economic benefits. The preliminary work on the bridge was done during the Great Depression and the construction was delayed by World War II. Showing that even when times were hard, there were people that thought ahead and were willing to invest. The United States needs more of that kind of thinking than it currently possesses.
Every step in the building process was photographed and this book is a record of that impressive engineering feat. There were some professionals that did not believe that such a bridge could be constructed, given the porous nature of the rock and the frequent harsh weather conditions. Yet, the decision was made, and the bridge has proven to be an economic lifeline to the state of Michigan as well as a key transit point in the movement of goods between the U. S. and Canada.
Reading about the construction of the bridge is also a reminder about the critical need for major construction projects and how they can be of such long-term economic benefits. The preliminary work on the bridge was done during the Great Depression and the construction was delayed by World War II. Showing that even when times were hard, there were people that thought ahead and were willing to invest. The United States needs more of that kind of thinking than it currently possesses.
August 14, 2016
I checked this out of the library intending on only looking at the photos and not reading it. Wrong! I was sucked in as each photo explains a part of the process of building the bridge. Wow! I held my breath while reading some, as I have a healthy fear of heights, and this book's got 'em in droves!
May 23, 2010
Mighty Mac: The official picture history of the Mackinac Bridge by Lawrence A Rubin (1979)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews