Envisioned since the 1880s, the bridge was designed by the engineer David B. Steinman and completed in 1957 only after many decades of struggles to begin construction.

[5] Much longer anchorage-to-anchorage spans have been built in the Eastern Hemisphere, including the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge in Japan (6,532 ft or 1,991 m), but the long leadups to the anchorages on the Mackinac make its total shoreline-to-shoreline length of 26,372 feet[11]—28 feet (8.5 m) short of five miles (8.0 km)—longer than the Akashi Kaikyo (2.4 mi or 3.9 km).

The Algonquian peoples who lived in the straits area prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 17th century called this region Michilimackinac, which is widely understood to mean Place of the Great Turtle.

[13] As usage of the state's mineral and timber resources increased during the 19th century, the area became an important transport hub.

In 1881 the three railroads that reached the Straits, the Michigan Central, Grand Rapids & Indiana, and the Detroit, Mackinac & Marquette, jointly established the Mackinac Transportation Company to operate a railroad car ferry service across the straits and connect the two peninsulas.

[14] Improved highways along the eastern shores of the Lower Peninsula brought increased automobile traffic to the Straits region starting in the 1910s.

[17] At a July 1888 meeting of the board of directors of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Cornelius Vanderbilt II proposed that a bridge be built across the straits, of a design similar to the one then under construction across the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

At the invitation of the state legislature, C. E. Fowler of New York City put forth a plan for a long series of causeways and bridges across the straits from Cheboygan, 17 miles (27 km) southeast of Mackinaw City, to St. Ignace, using Bois Blanc, Round, and Mackinac islands as intermediate steps.

[19]By 1928, the ferry service had become so popular and so expensive to operate that Governor Fred W. Green ordered the department to study the feasibility of building a bridge across the strait.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers and President Franklin D. Roosevelt endorsed the project but Congress never appropriated funds.

[citation needed] A concrete causeway, approximately 4,000 feet (1,219 m), extending from the northern shore, was constructed in shallow water from 1939 to 1941.

[citation needed] At that time, with funding for the project still uncertain, further work was put on hold because of the outbreak of World War II.

Three years after that disaster, Steinman had published a theoretical analysis of suspension-bridge stability problems, which recommended that future bridge designs include deep stiffening trusses to support the bridge deck and an open-grid roadway to reduce its wind resistance.

The road deck is shaped as an airfoil to provide lift in a cross wind, and the center two lanes are open grid to allow vertical (upward) air flow, which fairly precisely cancels the lift, making the roadway stable in design in winds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h).

Two vehicles have fallen off the bridge: On September 10, 1978, a small private plane carrying United States Marine Corps Reserve officers Maj. Virgil Osborne, Capt.

As a result, suicides by jumping from the bridge have been rare, with the most recent confirmed case taking place on December 31, 2012.

Until 2018, school buses from local districts transported walkers from Mackinaw City to St. Ignace to begin the walk.

Thousands of people, traditionally led by the governor of Michigan, cross the five-mile (8 km) span on foot from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City.

[57] The Bridge Walk is the only day of the year that hikers can hike this section of the North Country National Scenic Trail.

[60] The Straits area is a popular sailing destination for boats of all types, which make it easier to get a closer view to the underlying structure of the bridge.

On June 25, 1958, to coincide with that year's celebration of the November 1957 opening, the United States Postal Service (USPS) released a 3¢ commemorative stamp featuring the recently completed bridge.

[61] The USPS again honored the Mackinac Bridge as the subject of its 2010 priority mail $4.90 stamp, which went on sale February 3.

[62] The bridge authority and MDOT unveiled the stamp, which featured a "seagull's-eye view" of the landmark, with a passing freighter below.

[64] On April 24, 1959, Captain John S. Lappo, an officer in the Strategic Air Command, operating from Lockbourne AFB flew his Boeing B-47 Stratojet beneath the bridge.

[65] A feature-length documentary entitled Building the Mighty Mac was produced by Hollywood filmmaker Mark Howell in 1997 and was shown on PBS.

The program features numerous interviews with the key people who built the structure and includes restored 16mm color footage of the bridge's construction.

[68] The bridge and its maintenance crew were featured in an episode of the Discovery Channel TV show Dirty Jobs on August 7, 2007.