Title

In Michigan, we call it simply, “The Bridge.” Everyone knows what you mean when you say that, for while countless bridges punctuate our highway network, there is only one Bridge, and that is the Mackinac Bridge. The Mighty Mac: that elegant, five-mile-long structure which,spanning the turbulent, blue Straits of Mackinac, connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas and provides our state with one of its most famous and evocative emblems.

The Bridge is a constant presence in the distance as you sit on the upper deck of the jet ferry from Mackinaw City to the Island.

Yes, the Island. There is only one of those, too, at least here at the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula. Lakes Huron and Michigan are dotted with islands of various sizes, some of them quite large—Drummond Island, North and South Manitou, Boise Blanc—but Mackinac Island is an island apart from the rest. It may not be the largest, but it is by far the most colorful.