At 53 years old I think I have finally found the job I want to retire from! I have been in retail sales all of my working life. I spend my day looking at the beauty of the bridge and take toll from those who cross it. It is FUN!
Your correct. It is the Mackinac Bridge. It is an awesome job working there. It has to be one of the better jobs that I have had in a long time. Not bad getting to stare at that beautiful bridge day in and day out. However, it can get pretty nasty in the winter months when that wind starts howling and not to mention the -26 below temps and then you put the wind chill factor in there and it is REALLY cold! I am a tough girl however and have lived in Northern Michigan all of my life so I can handle it! Sorry I have been not on here for the last day or so, my dog passed away and I have been in a blah mood...it is amazing how attached we become to our little pets! I sure miss him.
It is a really nice job. It is working for the state, which would be great if I wasn't part time. I do not get any of the perks that the full time employees get. No insurance, no vacation, or holidays. I am going to stick it out because you never know when a full time position might open up. I am looking forward to the summer there for I have only started working this Fall, the nasty weather season! It will be nice to see the sun shining on Lake Michigan/Lake Huron and the birds flying around. The huge ships that come through the Straits is amazing as well, to watch them is awesome. Even this winter when the ice covered the Straits you would see ships going under the bridge...they keep a shipping lane open all winter I believe. It is a beautiful bridge that is for sure.
I grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where most of my family remain, and attended college at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. I know we went across the bridge the year they opened it, but I was only about six years old then, so the part of the trip that I remember best was Mackinac Island, where we spent a night. Later, as a Boy Scout, I walked across it on the one day a year when they (used to, anyhow) opened it up to pedestrian traffic. It really is an impressive bridge. Still later, I drove across it a few times but, since we lived in the southern part of the UP, whenever we were going to east, we'd go south of Lake Michigan rather than across the bridge.
The Annual Bridge Walk...would you believe that I have lived here all of my life and never once have I walked the bridge! My children have but it just never seems to interest me. I love walking but something about being up that high over very deep water bothers me just a little. I can drive it with no worries but walking it, well maybe this year!! I would like to say that I have walked the bridge once at least! It is a beautiful structure and I really need to learn more about it because now that I work there I get asked questions that I really should know. Some I do, but some I don't!! Of course I have already been blasted with "what time does the bridge swing over to the Island?" and I just laugh. I certainly hope they are not serious...but I guess you never know!
Sorry to hear about your pet. The bridge is awesome. I can see wanting to sit watch the people traveling on the bridge. The cold weather would keep me from thinking about such a job but then again I am a hot weather person.
The Mackinac Bridge connects Michigan's Upper Peninsula with its Lower Peninsula. How many of you have been across it?
Once in the early 1960s. We took the Trans Canada Highway back on a road trip out west. Turned south through Michigan.
Several times when I lived in Michigan. I've been across it once in a high wind and I don't ever want to anything like that again, no thanks!