The Bridge Built With Glue

1978 press photo

     If you live around the Saginaw, Midland, Bay City area of Michigan right away the title makes you think of the Zilwaukee Bridge.  This bridge is on I-75 just 5 miles north of Saginaw.  Before this bridge was built a draw bridge was used in its place.  I can remember when I was very young my Aunt Cindy was up visiting from Tulsa, Oklahoma.  She was engaged and my mom, my Aunt Joyce and I went to Bay City to look at wedding dressing or other wedding items.  I remember stopping at the draw bridge.  It might of been my first time seeing a draw bridge.  As a child is was so neat to see the road just raise up verticle to let the ships go through.  Even though I enjoyed seeing the draw bridge I never thought that I would probably never see that draw bridge again over the Saginaw River.  The Zilwaukee Bridge was built to help ease the highway congestion that the draw bridge created. 

     My grandmother's farm is set behind the Z-Bridge.  Thinking real hard I think I can still picutre going out to the farm and seeing cranes high up in the sky looming over the trees in the distance building the Z-Bridge.  Again, I didn't take too much notice to them as I was a child and busy playing but I did love the landscape out at the farm and I knew there was something huge far off in the distance that was being built. 

     Growing up I would often hear talks about the Zilwaukee Bridge.  I remember people talking about how a section of it came crashing down and rumors were spread that it was built with glue and the glue didn't hold.  I would think of the cow on the elmer's glue bottle and picture a tanker truck spreading this white sticky glue over everything. 

     Obviously, rumors are seldom true.  Back in 1982, a section sank 5 feet in the wet boggy ground while the other side of the section rose up three and a half feet.  In doing so it caused major cracking to the pier footings.  MDOT ended up firing that contractor and hiring a new one to finish up the already over budgeted project. 

     Highway I-675 was built to help route traffice around the Zilwaukee Bridge to help ease traffic from the draw bridge.  It also was helped loop traffic through the downtown Saginaw area.   

Map of where I-675 loops around I-75 to avoid the Zilwaukee Bridge

     At the end of the everything the bridge is about a mile and a half long and raises up about 125 feet above the Saginaw River.  There is epoxy that is used as joint sealant and when it hardens is stronger than concrete.  Perhaps that is where the saying of "made with glue" comes from.  After over 20 years of planning and building the bridge was finally open to the public in 1988.  Sadly, my grandfather (on my mother's side) who enjoyed keeping track of the building of the bridge died a few months before it opened.  My grandmother (also on my mother's side) vowed never to go across the bridge made with glue as she was worried it would fall. 

     That summer her health was failing quickly.  With my sister driving my mom, brother, Nonnie (that is what we called my grandmother) and I all piled into the Cadillac for a scenic drive.  Nonnie was in the front seat when she noticed a huge bridge up a head of her. 

     "MICHELLE!" she bellowed out to my mom.  "YOUR DAUGHTER IS DRIVING US OVER THE BRIDGE!" 

     We all laughed with delight as Nonnie was powerless to stop the car from going over.  I think the whole time she held on to the car door handles screaming until we got to the other side.  I will never know if she truely enjoyed it and was glad she did it or if she was glad she was on the other side.  A few months after that she, too, passed away.  I am glad of having that memory of her going over the bridge when it was newly opened.  It makes that bridge a bit more special to me.  I was 11 years old. 

     Since that time between I was 11 and 14 I had been across that bridge many times and I loved it.  I loved the part when near the top you could look over the edge if you sit up tall and see my other grandparents farm and see the barns.  I loved how being up so tall you can see forever it seemed.  I never thought twice about that bridge that is until I was 15. 

     I took driver's training through Sears Century Driving School at the Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw.  I will save my driver's ed for another blog but for my instructor everyone had to cross the Z-Bridge but it was unannounced to us.  After one day of driving around Saginaw my instructor told me to get on the highway and head north.  I was a good driver and had no problem in doing so.  Suddenly we round a corner and there stood like a huge dinosaur was the Z-Bridge.  It never seemed so big and terrifing before.  But I had never been behind the wheel before going over the Z-Bridge either.  I seen an exit right before the bridge. 

     "You want me to exit here?"  I asked the instructor as my hand was getting ready to push the turn signal upwards for the right blinker to come on.

     "Nope,"  he says calmly, "Go up and over the bridge."

     I couldn't breath.  My hands gripped tighter around the steering wheel.  I slowed down to the point where the instructor had to tell me to go a bit faster.  I wanted to shut my eyes but I couldn't.  What if Nonnie was right?  What if the bridge is built with glue?  What if another section comes crashing down below?  It seemed like forever before I came to the other side of the bridge.  After I was off the bridge it felt like I could breathe again.  My fingers relaxed around the steering wheel.  I did it!  I would tell myself over and over. 

     A year later I had moved to the other side of the state and never really had to deal with the Z-Bridge again.  I have been over that bridge a handful of times since I was 15.  When I get near that bridge as I make my way back to Sagianw my breath stops again and I can't start breathing again until I get to the other side.  My kids find it funny that I don't like that bridge.  However, if I am not driving, I still find myself sitting up a little taller to catch a glimpse of my granparents farm off in the distance. 

Aerial view of the Zilwaukee Bridge.
Courtsey of Mlive.