The Portage Lake Lift Bridge (also known as the Houghton-Hancock Lift Bridge) was built as a wooden swing bridge in 1875. The original funds were raised by three private citizens and built by James P. Edward from the Chicago firm Fox and Howard, Inc. It was replaced in 1895 by a steel swing bridge which was damaged in 1905 when the Northern Wave, a ship passing through the canal, collided with the center part of the swing bridge. In 1920, a similar accident was avoided when a ship set on a collision course with the bridge dropped anchor and was able to stop before running into the bridge.
The swing bridge was replaced by the current lift bridge in 1959. The night before the ribbon cutting, a steamer from the American Steamship Company (J.F. Schoelkoff), almost took out the bridge. Calls to the bridge operators went unanswered, and the J.F. Schoelkoff dropped anchor, snagging on telegraph lines along the bottom of the canal. Phone and telegraph service was out for three days after the incident, and attendees at the ribbon cutting were treated to the view of a steamer sitting sideways in the canal.
With the crisis averted the dual level, four lane bridge opened for business. It originally allowed for rail traffic on the lower level of the bridge as well as automotive traffic on the upper deck. Rail service was discontinued in 1982 and it is no longer passable by train. Now, the bridge mainly stays in the middle position with the lower level only completely lowered after the lake freezes in the winter to allow snowmobile traffic to pass on the lower deck or for bridge maintenance during the summer. The bridge was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in June 2022.
You can see the bridge live on Michigan Tech’s bridge cam, available here.
This photo was taken by Kati Hook of Hooked on Photography in November 2016.
Photo © Kati Hook, all rights reserved.
Puzzle © So Puzzled Puzzle Company, LLC, all rights reserved.
Disclaimer: So Puzzled Puzzle Company, LLC is not affiliated with any personalities appearing in this puzzle design and makes no claim of rights to such personalities or the intellectual properties thereof.
Sources: Wikipedia, City of Hancock
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