The Zilwaukee Bridge and the town with the odd name

If you’ve driven I-75 toward northern Michigan, you’ve crossed the Zilwaukee Bridge — a mile-and-a-half-long span that lifts the freeway high over the Saginaw River so ships can pass underneath. It replaced an old drawbridge that used to stop traffic for miles every time it opened. Some people say the bridge marks the start of “Up North.”

The bridge is also famous for going badly wrong while it was being built. In August 1982, with the structure about half finished, a long section of the deck tilted out of place under the weight of construction equipment — one end sagging several feet, the other rising. Nothing collapsed, but it stopped the whole project for years and added a lot to the cost; the bridge didn’t fully open until the late 1980s. As for the name: the story goes that the little town of Zilwaukee was named as a nod to booming Milwaukee, supposedly to tempt German immigrants into settling here instead.