that made better use of existing highways. All contributed significantly to Michigan's economic growth. By the end of the 1960's, Michigan's population had climbed to nearly nine million. Motor vehicle registrations, including cars, trucks and motorcycles, totaled five million. Miles traveled on the highway-road-street system reached 51 billion by 1970, a 60 percent increase in just 10 years.
The Legislature, responding to new and greater travel demands, enacted a "good roads" package in 1967 to bring in an additional $65 million a year. It raised the gas tax to seven cents a gallon, increased the auto license plate fee from 35 cents per hundredweight to the pre-depression rate of 55 cents and increased truck license fees about 10 percent.
Before the opening of the Mackinac Bridge in 1957, crossing the Straits of Mackinac in winter could be a challenge to the heartiest.
The 1950's and 1960's also were big bridge-building years for Michigan. A special authority created by the Legislature in 1950 guided construction of a long-awaited bridge connecting Michigan's two peninsulas at the Straits of Mackinac. The five-mile-long suspension bridge, one of the world's longest, was financed by the sale of $99.8 million in revenue bonds and was opened Nov. 1, 1957.
The department designed and built a huge double-deck lift bridge with a four-lane highway on the upper level and a railroad track on the lower level to carry US-41 across the
The age-old dream of connecting Michigan's two peninsulas became reality in 1957 with the opening of the Mackinac Bridge across the Straits of Mackinac.
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