Portage_lake_lift_bridge

Official name	Portage Lake Lift Bridge
Carries	US 41 and M-26
Crosses	Portage Waterway arm of Portage Lake
Locale	Hancock and Houghton, Michigan
Maintained by	MDOT
Design	Vertical Lift Bridge
Longest span	250 ft clearance
Total length	approx 500?
Width	upper deck: - 4 lanes with no shoulders lower deck: - 4 lanes with no shoulders - single track railroad (abandoned 1982)
Clearance below	4 ft fully lowered, 32-36 ft raised to intermediate position (lower deck at upper roadway), ~100 ft fully raised)
Opening date	1875, 1901, 1959(current)
Maps and aerial photos

The Portage Lake Lift Bridge connects the cities of Hancock and Houghton, Michigan by crossing over the Portage Waterway, an arm of Portage Lake which cuts across the Keweenaw Peninsula with a canal linking the final several miles to Lake Superior to the northwest. US 41 and M-26 are both routed across the bridge.

The original bridge on this site was a wooden bridge built in 1875. This was replaced by a steel bridge built by the King Bridge Company in 1901. This bridge was damaged when a ship collided with it in 1905. Repairs were made to the bridge but were unable to fully restore it. In 1959, this bridge was replaced, at a cost of about 11-13 million US dollars(sources vary), by the current bridge which was built by the American Bridge Company.

The Portage Lake Lift Bridge at night from north of Hancock, MI

The Portage Lake Lift Bridge at Night during Fall 2007, MI

As its name states, the bridge is a lift bridge with the middle section capable of being lifted from its low point of four feet clearance over the water to a clearance of 100 feet to allow boats to pass underneath. The Portage Lake Lift Bridge is the widest and heaviest double decked vertical lift bridge in the world.

The lower deck of the bridge was originally open to rail traffic, but this level is now a road and it is raised up to road level in the summer for cars. This is done so that smaller boats may pass below without needing to disrupt car traffic. It is lowered in the winter, when ice prevents boats, for snowmobile traffic that can enter under the roadway.

Hancock and Houghton hold an annual celebration called Bridgefest to commemorate the opening of the bridge which united their two communities.

External links

The Portage Lake Lift Bridge in winter from Houghton, MI

• Michigan Tech Bridge Cam
• Portage Lake BridgeCam
• Bridgefest Website
• Aerial photo of bridge, from Microsoft Terraserver
• City of Hancock Bridge History Page
• King Bridge Company older bridge history page
• Byways.org Claims bridge is heaviest/widest double deck lift bridge in world.
• Michigan Department of Transportation page
• Copper Range historical society information

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia