h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Mackinac Bridge-Michigan - A56891613
Author: shagbark - U170775

This marvelous bridge is worth noting.

slight quibble for a sentence in the last paragraph "Pedestrians have no sidewalks on this structure and are prohibited from entering except during special occasions."

It's not too easy to see on the webcam images. Do you mean there are no sidewalks or there are none that the general public can use in normal circumstances? Also 'entering' seems the wrong verb to me. Would suggest something along the lines of : 'The structure had no public sidewalks. Pedestrians are only permitted to access the bridge on special occasions.'

An interesting read!

Good work, but there are a few points in this entry where the wording could be better, and there's some typos that need sorting out. Two particular corrections:

Mackinac Bridge-Michigan --> Mackinac Bridge, Michigan, USA

This is a toll bridge and traffic is charged a per axle charge at toll booths that sit on each approach to the bridge.
-->
The Mackinac is a toll bridge, with a per-axle charge applied at toll booths that sit on each approach to the bridge.

Keep up the good work

Alex

List of the largest/longest things are always troublesome. But even a quick check shows that the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has a longer single span (4,200 ft or 1,280m). There may be others too.

Or perhaps when you say "longest span", you mean "longest total span"?

what I said was taken from the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Mackinaw Bridge Authority.
Looking closer I suppose it is comparing the
2,625 meters between anchorages.
this compares to the golden gates 1,960 meters between anchorages.
Having walked it I will admit that the Big Mac is fudging their numbers a bit in that from the last point the span is suspended on each side to where the cable is attached to the anchorage includes about 50 meters on each end so the total suspension would be more like 2,500 meters but still well above the 1,970 meters of the golden gate Bridge.

As to the matter of sidewalks- The bridge was designed to be part of the US interstate highway system which prohibits pedestrian traffic.
The only thing on the side of the roadway is a catwalk for maintenance of the bridge.

One more note- during the bridge walk National Guard personnel were stationed every quarter mile or so and they had orders to keep everyone off the catwalk, so even then all foot traffic was on the roadbed itself.

As to the choice of verb - when you want to keep someone out of an area you put up a sign 'DO NOT ENTER' rather than 'NO ACCESS'
When the Interstate highways were first built every ramp leading onto them had a sign
'This is a limited access highway, bicycles, pedestrians, and vehicles under 1200cc are not allowed past this point.'
and to keep traffic from entering on an exit ramp all exits ramps had the signs with the big red circle and slash 'Do not Enter'.

what I meant by the 50 meters not suspended on each end is that there are caissons on the rocky bed of the strait holding up the bridge within the distance listed for the two anchorages. these do not extend above the steel trusses below the bridge but they do support it at that point.

and if you think the webcam doesn't tell the whole story
here are a few pictures I took myself.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025239&id=1573280748&l=39d9135419
The outer lanes of the roadbed were concrete. The center lanes were a steel gridwork.

Picking up on Gnomon's point, suspension bridges length records are conventionally based on the length of the main span. On that basis, the Mackinac Bridge is the third longest in the US and the Golden Gate Bridge (20 years older) is the second. Longer than either is New York's Verazzano Narrows Bridge joining Staten Island to Brooklyn, which was the world's longest from its completion in 1964 till the UK's Humber Bridge topped it in 1981.

In world terms today, the Mackinac Bridge is 12th, the Golden Gate Bridge is variously listed as 9th or 10th (being very close to a Chinese rival) and the Verazzano Narrows Bridge is 8th.

"Total length of suspended carriageway" is another way of comparing bridges, and some bridges are much more impressive when measured in this way.

An excellent read

I gather that the "between anchorages" comparison is intentionally done to boost its rating among bridges - which seems fair enough. It's just that since this is the case, care needs to be taken to stick to this measure. ie, it seems incorrect to say that
"This is one of the world's longest suspension bridges."

Rather, it might be more correct to say:
"This is one of the world's longest suspension bridges when measured between anchorages."


"During Periods of high winds all vehicles are stopped at the toll booth until the wind subsides. In later years a bridge-cam was installed"
Would it be worth including some mention that this bridge was (thankfully) designed to avoid the difficulties of the Tacoma Narrows bridge? Having said that, do you know why traffic is restricted during high winds? Is it because of stability considerations, or is it just the more practical reason that vehicles might get blown off?


"With nearly 100 Million US Dollars (59,880,000 Pounds) in bonds..."
Since these are 1957 US dollars, did you convert to 1957 Pounds? In fact, I'd leave the conversion to pounds out altogether because it is somewhat problematic. Rather, it would make more sense to convert to todays dollars. This site has a calculator:
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

and in todays dollars, the bridge would have cost about 770 Million


It must have been mighty impressive to walk the bridge.

I think you need to include an opening paragraph which explains that the State of Michigan is divided into two separate parts by the lakes and the straits. These are known as the Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

I have changed the opening paragraph to set the stage.
I noted that the bridge was 12th not third as the Mackinac Bridge Authority claims.
As to value of bonds sold, I do not want to say 'todays dollars' as that would quickly get outdated the longer this article stands so instead I added a footnote comparing it to 2009 dollars.

I believe I have addressed those concerns. anything else?

Can you please explain why it is Mackinac in some places and Mackinaw in others. Are these two different places, different spellings of the same place or typos?

That's an excellent opening quote and lead-in you've added

The mackinaw chamber of comerce had a FAQ for kids from which I copy the following
Is it Mackinac or Mackinaw?
The name Mackinac or Mackinaw is always pronounced as "aw". The area was originally called Michinnimakinong by the Ojibwa Indians. The word is translated as follows:

MISH - GREAT
INNI - CONNECTING SOUND
MAKI - FAULT
NONG - LAND OR PLACE

The Island has a large crevice or crack and the term was used by the early Indians as an identifying description to fellow travelers. The world MICHINNIMAKINONG was later shortened to Mackinac by the French. The British wrote it as it was pronounced, thus MACKINAW CITY.
the question is how much of this needs to be i n an article on the bridge?