Steel in the News
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Posted by Tasha Weiss on November 18, 2011 at 2:21 PM.
This photo shows the Annual Bridge Walk held each Labor Day on the Mackinac Bridge, the third longest suspension bridge in the U.S. Every year people from all over the country take this five-mile walk and experience firsthand the wonder of steel. By using open web trusses in combination with an open grating for the road, the bridge becomes transparent to strong winds, meaning the deck would not swing or sway, as a result of its reduced wind resistance. Photo and description: Delia Radbata
This photo by Delia Radbata, a civil and structural engineering graduate student at Lawrence Technological University, received an Honorable Mention in the 2011 AISC Student Photo Contest. Radbata captured some of the 600 people in locomotion for the 54th Annual Mackinac Bridge Walk on September 5, 2011. Participants walk across the five-mile-long steel bridge that connects Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas where Lake Huron meets Lake Michigan.
This event has been held each year since the Mackinac Bridge opened in 1957. Last year the structure was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. With a main span of 3,800 ft, it is the third longest suspension span in the U.S. and 12th longest in the world. Its overall length between anchorages - 8,614 ft - makes it the longest suspension bridge between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere.
Visit the bridge’s official website, www.mackinacbridge.org, to learn more and view numerous historical construction and event photos in the site’s Photo Gallery.
To see another perspective of the massive bridge highlighting a gorgeous Michigan sunset, check out this year’s winning photo in the AISC Student Photo Contest, here.
