Mackinac Bridge - Length

Length

The bridge opened on November 1, 1957, ending decades of the two peninsulas being solely linked by ferries. A year later, the bridge was formally dedicated as the "world's longest suspension bridge between anchorages." This designation was chosen because the bridge would not be the world's longest using another way of measuring suspension bridges, the length of the center span between the towers; at the time that title belonged to the Golden Gate Bridge, which has a longer center span. By saying "between anchorages", the bridge could be considered longer than the Golden Gate Bridge and also longer than the suspended western section of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge. (That bridge has a longer total suspension but is a double bridge with an anchorage in the middle.) Compare, List of longest bridges in the world and List of longest suspension bridge spans.

At 8,614 feet (2,626 m), the Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge with two towers between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere. Much longer anchorage-to-anchorage spans have been built in the Eastern Hemisphere, including the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge in Japan (12,826 ft, 3,909 m). However, because of the long leadups to the anchorages on the Mackinac, from shoreline to shoreline it is much longer at 5 miles (8.0 km) than the Akashi-Kaikyo (2.4 mi ).

The length of the bridge's main span is 3,800 feet (1,158 m), which makes it the third-longest suspension span in the United States and 12th longest worldwide.