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07/01/2007Big Mac at 50'Mighty Mac' an engineering, political triumph
By George WeeksSyndicated columnist As a cub reporter on a rainy day in 1958, I tagged along when Gov. G. Mennen "Soapy” Williams, with sea gulls over his head and sunflower seeds in his mouth, was the first governor to walk the Mackinac Bridge. As it celebrates its 50th anniversary, I offer some reflections on "Der Bridge”—-as dubbed not at all fondly by the late, great bestselling Upper Peninsula author ("Anatomy of a Murder”) and Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker. He treasured pre-bridge isolation. Although critics at the time dubbed it "Soapy's Folly,” Williams gets deserved kudos along with U.S. Sen. Prentiss M. Brown as political driving forces behind the building of Mighty Mac. Motorists today approach the span on the G. Mennen Williams Freeway. In my last interview with Williams reflecting on his unprecedented six terms from 1949-1960 (at the time, terms were two years), he quipped: "I made myself a failure by not having two or three headline achievements, outside of maybe the Mackinac Bridge.” (In truth, Williams accomplished much in some areas, but left Michigan on fiscal rocks.) Williams wasn't our first governor to tout bridging the peninsulas. It was a dream of feisty 1911-12 Gov. Chase Osborn, a journalist-outdoorsman who was the only governor from the Upper Peninsula and one of Michigan's most progressive political figures. 
The view from the south tower of the Mackinac Bridge, facing north toward St. Ignace and the Upper Peninsula. Long after leaving office, Osborn personally lobbied President Franklin D. Roosevelt for support of the bridge, meeting with FDR about it in 1939 at Warm Springs, Ga. That year, the Holland Sentinel observed editorially that Osborn, then 79, was still "up to his neck in public projects of all sorts,” most notably fighting for the bridge. During his 1930s reign as state highway commissioner, 1941-42 Gov. Murray Van Wagoner aggressively advocated the bridge. Causeway construction was started southward from St. Ignace, but was stopped because of World War II. I was part of a United Press International team, led by Tom Farrell of the Lansing Bureau, covering the 1957 opening of the bridge and its dedication in June 1958. Our photographer at the dedication had a glitch in capturing the nighttime fireworks display over the bridge. With the help of Executive Secretary Larry Rubin of the Mackinac Bridge Authority, we were able later to locate and rouse the fireworks crew at a St. Ignace motel, and convince it to stage a special late night firing over the bridge. "Boom, Boom, Boom” was how the now-defunct Detroit Times began its story describing the re-enactment that startled sleeping residents on both sides of the straits. The four-day Bridge Dedication Festival began at 9:05 a.m. June 25 when Williams and his State Police bodyguard walked through the St. Ignace tollgate. They were accompanied by 34 members of the International Walkers Association of America, Rubin and two reporters. The fog was so thick that two ships collided beneath the bridge shortly after Williams reached Mackinaw City. Damage was slight. President Dwight Eisenhower called the span "an engineering triumph.” It also was a political triumph. George Weeks retired last year after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features
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