The Niagara passing under the old I-75 drawbridge and the new Zilwaukee bridge in the background under construction.
Before the Zilwaukee bridge was opened to traffic in December of 1987 a draw bridge was built over the Saginaw River for I-75. It opened daily for the Niagara nicknamed “The Sandsucker” It sucked sand off the bottom of Lake Huron for the General Motors Iron Foundry and traveled to Saginaw nearly every day. When the draw bridge opened for ships, traffic would be backed up for miles, especially on a holiday weekend. It took nine years to build the current Zilwaukee Bridge. The ironic thing is by the time the bridge was finished, the foundry no longer used the Niagara to get sand and ships occasionally came that far up into the river.
I grew up in the shadow of the bridge in the the township of Carrollton. I still remember the traffic backups as a kid and my dad traveling through downtowns Saginaw to avoid the highway. I still live close to the Z-bridge, but I rarely travel over it because of where my house is located off I-675. I could not even imagine what traffic would be like if the old draw bridge was there today and opened on a holiday weekend.
P.S. An interesting thing to note is how Zilwaukee got its name. In 1854 Zilwaukee Township was formed and as the story goes the village was named Zilwaukee with the hopes it would confuse immigrants coming into New York thinking they are going to Milwaukee Wisconsin.
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