Cut River Bridge


Cut River Bridge is a cantilevered steel deck bridge over the Cut River in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located along U.S. Highway 2 in Hendricks Township, Mackinac County, between Epoufette and Brevort, about northwest of St. Ignace and the Straits of Mackinac. There is a long but not often traversed wooden staircase to the valley below that was constructed some time after the construction of the bridge itself. On the east end of the bridge, there is an office door built under the main structure with a brass plaque inscribed "T. Troll".
The bridge was built in 1947 and is one of only two cantilevered deck truss bridges in Michigan, it is long and contains of structural steel. The bridge carries traffic on US 2 above and spans the Cut River Valley, below.

History

The State Highway Department designed this structure, and W.J. Meagher and Sons, Contractors, built it. Actual construction began in 1941. Due to the demand for steel during World War II, construction on the bridge was halted until after the war.
Legislation passed in 2014 by the Michigan Legislature named the bridge after Heath Michael Robinson, a fallen member of the Navy SEALs who was killed on August 6, 2011 in Wardak, Afghanistan when their Chinook helicopter came under fire.

Construction

The bridge is a steel deck cantilever bridge. The structure has extensive latticing on its members, which are all very massive. The bridge retains original standard-plan metal guardrails on the sidewalks that flank the roadway on each side.