
Visitors to Michigan Are Often Surprised to Learn You Can Drive Under the Mackinac Bridge
Michigan's Mackinac Bridge is one of the state's most recognized symbols and it serves as a vital transportation link between the two peninsulas.
Tourists flock to the Straits of Mackinac to enjoy time on Mackinaw Island and the bridge's twinned communities of Mackinaw City and St. Ignace.
👇🏼BELOW: The Only Destination For These Highways are Michigan State Parks + Heads Up - These are the Lowest Clearance Bridges in Michigan👇🏼
What may surprise some is that there are portions of the Mackinac Bridge you can drive underneath.
The spots are on the north side of Mackinaw City at the very tip of the Lower Peninsula. The lead up to the bridge begins northbound after Jamet Street which is an odd at-grade on-ramp with I-75 being at the level of the surrounding surface streets.
North of Jamet, I-75 remains at grade with the streets of the village and block access for drivers wishing to drive east-west on either Sinclair or Depeyster Streets as both are truncated at the freeway.
READ MORE: Michigan Explains Why They Will Almost Certainly Never Use EZ-Pass on Toll Bridges
However the next block north, the approach to the bridge has reached a height that would allow some automobile passage underneath - but not much.
There is a very lower clearance 10'-6'' bridge that allows drivers to pass under the Mackinac Bridge. The roadway changes names under I-75. It's Huron Avenue to the east and Straits Avenue to the west
Busses trucks and RVs are restricted from using the underpass.
READ MORE: Why The Mackinac Bridge Should Not Technically Be Interstate 75
There is one other spot where drivers may pass underneath the Mackinac Bridge and that happens in the parking lot to Fort Michilimackinac. There the parking lot ends under the bridge and the visitors center to the historic park is located underneath the Mackinac Bridge as well.
There is nothing similar on the northside of the bridge. Since the Mackinac Bridge was constructed at the narrowest point in the Straits, that is downtown Mackinaw City to just west of St. Ignace so there were no city streets to navigate through in St Ignace like the village streets in Mackinaw City.
The northside, however, has the coyly named Bridge View exit, number 373, which leads only to a roadside park for viewing the Mighty Mac.
The Only Destination For These Highways are Michigan State Parks
Gallery Credit: Google Maps Street View
Heads Up - These are the Lowest Clearance Bridges in Michigan
Gallery Credit: Google Maps Street View
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