M-156 Bridge

Information and Findings From Michigan Historic Bridge Inventory

Narrative Description

The city of Morenci, which was platted in 1852 and incorporated as a village in 1871, served the county early on as an important industrial and grain mill center. The present bridge over Silver Creek was constructed in 1935 at a cost of $35,700 by the W.H. Knapp Company, a contractor based in Monroe. The bridge replaced an older 40-foot Pratt pony truss at the site that was in very poor condition. Funding for new construction came from the Hayden-Cartwright program, a national federal relief effort. As a part of a larger national development of the Taft Memorial Highway, the bridge project represented a cooperative venture by the state highway department and the Taft Memorial Highway Association. The association had been established in 1930 to honor the nation's twenty-seventh president by creating a memorial highway extending from Florida to Michigan.

Attended by more than 5,000 people, the bridge's dedication ceremony on 31 July 1935 featured a main address by the state highway commissioner, Murray D. Van Wagoner, after whom the city council had named the structure. Van Wagoner headed the Michigan State Highway Department from 1933 until 1940, when he was elected governor. Other notable guests included the president of the Taft Memorial Highway Association, the mayor of Morenci, a state senator, the head of the state highway department's bridge division, and the department's district engineer.

Statement of Significance

The Murray D. Van Wagoner Memorial Bridge is eligible for the National Register for its association with a memorial highway and the related tourism industry, and as a named bridge at a state border.

Information and Findings From Michigan Historic Sites Online

Narrative Description

Lying just south of the central district of Morenci, this bridge is skewed 30 degrees to follow the curve of the two-lane highway as it approaches the Ohio border immediately south of the crossing. The bridge's substructure consists of concrete abutments and decorative stepped wingwalls. These wingwalls are flared at the northeast and southwest corners, and U-form on the northwest and southeast. The roadway over the bridge is edged by railings formed from ornamental metal lattice sections fixed between concrete posts accented by recessed panels. Flexible-metal approach rails are bolted to inner face of each end post. Concrete sidewalks run along each side of the structure.

Markers

Taft Memorial Hwy
In 1930 organizers from Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida formed the Taft Memorial Highway Association to promote automobile tourism. Named after the nation's twenty-seventh president, William Howard Taft, the highway stretched from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to Fort Myers, Florida. Inspired by hundreds of similar associations across the country, founding members lobbied for modern roads and bridges along there selected routes. Morenci organizers participated actively in the association. Although the association ceased operations during World War II, the state highway bridge over the Silver Creek remains a legacy of local effort in a national movement.

Murray D. Van Wagoner Memorial Bridge
The Michigan State Highway Department built the steel-beamed Murray D. Van Wagoner Bridge over Silver Creek in 1935 at a cost of $35,700. The federal relief project helped the community by providing work during the Great Depression. The Morenci community, and boosters from the Taft Memorial Highway Association, held a dedication ceremony attended by 5,000 people. Namesake Murray D. Van Wagoner, head of the State Highway Department and a future governor of Michigan, made the keynote speech. Adjacent is the 1893 Sterling Road truss bridge, relocated in 2004 from nearby Hillsdale County by the Michigan Department of Transportation for use as a crossing on the pedestrian trail.