[3] The MBA was empowered by legislation in 1952 "to issue revenue bonds 'for the purpose of paying for the cost of a bridge'".

[6] Over the course of 2004 and 2005, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Director Gloria Jeff made moves to challenge the independence of the authority against previous practices claiming that the authority is not an independent agency.

[2] In September 2005, Governor Jennifer Granholm was in talks between MDOT and the MBA to develop an agreement between the two agencies to solve the recent issues brought to the fore as the MDOT Director attempt to cut cost, due to statewide budget pressures, at the authority by reducing the board's power.

[7] The talks ended with an agreement for the bridge authority to resume operations as it has in the past with MDOT implementing its decisions and the MDOT Chief Deputy Director Kirk Steudle assigned the director's position on the authority board.

[9] William Gnodtke has been the chairman of the board since 2002,[10] and the executive secretary has been Kim Nowack since 2019.