mackinac bridge museum

One of the few great things left in Michigan lol. I remember travelling here when my HS basketball team would play Cedarville, it was always the most anticipated trip of the year.

We always check out the museum located above (upstairs) Mama Mia's Pizza in downtown Mackinaw City. Visit while waiting for your pizza order.The museum is free. To a history buff, you will find some really cool pictures, movies, tools, etc. The museum is small, but you can spend as much time as you want if you want to read everything on display.If you have dust allergies, wear a mask. Just sayin'

This bridge is awesome and the history behind it and how the people stood together and didn't give up to get it was awesome.

This was a let down. Luckily it was free. But, if you're in town and looking for something indoors to do, stop in and watch the video. That piece was worthwhile to learn about the history of the bridge.

It's really gratifying that someone took the time to start and maintain this museum. It's located upstairs in the Mama Mia pizza restaurant and there is a lot to see up there including videos, displays, articles, and a little store. We were up there at least 30 minutes and you could easily do longer if you wanted to. It would be fascinating for anyone to learn about the building of the Mackinaw Bridge, but I believe it's especially important for anyone who lives here to understand what went in to creating this piece of history and how monumental and forward it was for its time. It's all completely free, but there is a little collection bin for donations if you're so inclined. We really enjoyed it and will check it out again next time we visit.

After consulting TripAdvisor, my blind husband and I had been looking forward to visiting this museum. Our experience turned out to be very disappointing. Located on the second floor of a restaurant, the only entrance into the museum required us to walk to the back of the restaurant through a maze of tables and booths. (For the first time while vacationing in Michigan, we were stopped by a young male employee and told my husband and his Seeing Eye dog weren't permitted. We showed the individual the Michigan service dog statute and expressed our disappointment to the manager on duty.) We climbed a stairway to the museum location -- helter-skelter groupings of furniture and artifacts that helped to tell the story of Mackinac bridge construction. We were drawn to a television set running a continuous loop tape of interviews with the men who worked on the bridge. This was one of the best parts of the museum. We then carefully made our way through furniture groupings and displays to a larger theater area, to see another taped presentation dealing with bridge construction. At one point, someone connected to the museum-restaurant operation turned on a loud air conditioner. While we were struggling to hear the tape audio, what prompted us to leave the museum (before viewing the rest of the artifacts and before we'd seen all of the taped presentation) was regular and repeated announcements of pizza orders being ready for pick-up from the first-floor restaurant. Those loud announcements made it next to impossible to hear the tape and seemed particularly inappropriate while listening to the hardships workers encountered as they constructed the Mighty Mac. We quickly decided to just leave and once again had to walk the entire length of the downstairs restaurant to get to the door.We'd been able to get to Bridge View Park on the St. Ignace side of the bridge the day before. We learned more about the history of the bridge by reading displays in the park's shelter than we'd gotten from the Mackinaw City bridge museum.Given the way the museum presented its exhibits -- and the audio interruptions that marred the presentation of the main film about bridge history -- I wonder if the gentleman who owned the restaurant and initially organized the museum (someone who has since passed on) would want to make a few changes. At the very least, he might want to keep the pizza announcements to a minimum in order to let the history he helped create shine through.

Very well kept, very informative, we enjoyed ourselves alot, found this our last day on vacation. Glad we found it lots of good things to look at in here.

Love going up and seeing all the artifacts and movie reels. It never gets old, and it's FREE! Make time to watch the longer reel, the details are worth it.

There is a lot of artifacts, It really is not a place for kids, I saw a lot of bored kids being dragged thru .

Local history, doesn't take a lot of time, and gives a good background to the straits of Mackinac area.

Incredible items showing how the bridge was built, the video showing what these guys had to work through and with to build it was amazing

Enjoyed all the history in this area of our country! If anyone gets the opportunity to go, do so! You will not regret your visit always new stuff to be on display real people in character doing what they did in the day. A show preformed by the characters and then invite you the spectator to enjoy the fun that was shared in that era, songs and dance etc.

We weren't sure what to see in Mackinaw City other than to get some great views of the Mackinac Bridge. The information booth pointed us in the direction of the Bridge Museum which we would have never found otherwise. You get to it through a pizza restaurant! Anyway, once there the film which gives the history of the bridge is very interesting and informative. I would allow 30 minutes to see it and have a look around the other exhibits.

If you drive the bridge this is a must. What it took to build and the engineering, logistics not to mention the weather.

I understand the original was destroyed in a fire and this set up seems to be a make-shift tribute. I get they tried to bring back what they could and even included a theater setting to view a documentary. It may just be me, but I was not into it. I do give them credit for trying to bring it back though.