The Ojibwa and Ottawa Indian tribes inhabited the area during the first European contact in the 1600s. "Mackinac" is derived from the native word "paw-gwa-tchaw-nish-naw-boy," which means "wild, roaming supernatural being."
More than 4.8 million steel rivets were used to build the Mackinac Bridge. It has more than 1 million steel bolts and about 42,000 miles of cable.
Five workers died during the bridge's construction. One fell while welding on the upper part of the bridge, one drowned, two men fell from a catwalk on the north side of the bridge and one had an accident while diving.
The Mackinac Bridge opened to vehicles on Nov. 1, 1957. Traffic in October 2009 exceeded 300,000 vehicles going over to the Upper Peninsula and returning.
Every year on Labor Day, about 50,000 people gather to walk across the bridge from the Lower Peninsula. Traditionally, the walk is led by Michigan's governor.
