Bridge Stamp Denied
Organizers To Make 2nd Appeal
By Ryan Schlehuber

A proposal for a commemorative U.S. postage stamp to recognize the Mackinac Bridge 50th anniversary in 2007 has been turned down and members of a citizens committee say they will resubmit the proposal for a 2008 stamp, this time with more support demonstrating that the bridge has national appeal.

The U.S. Postal Service stamp review board said it rejected the bridge stamp because it lacked national appeal. Local committee chairman Richard Moehl of Mackinaw City said he sees many proposals for bridge stamps, so it is up to the committee to show the Mackinac Bridge is unique.

“In 1999, the Mackinac Bridge was judged the top civil engineering feat in the state, ahead of the Soo Locks and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel,” said Mr. Moehl. “That’s the kind of thing we have to play up. We have to show what it did for commerce in the area and things along those lines.”

The committee will attend the Mackinac Bridge Authority meeting in Lansing on April 8, where Mr. Moehl said the bridge anniversary and the Michigan Department of Transportation’s 100th anniversary in 2005 will be discussed.

“We’re trying to be in concert with MDOT and the bridge authority’s anniversary plans,” Mr. Moehl said.

The stamp committee’s rejection may have been a blessing, said Mr. Moehl. Since the rejection, Mr. Moehl has received many comments from people and news media from around the state wanting to know more, asking why the proposal was rejected.

“It shows that people throughout the state are interested in this and that they feel the Mackinac Bridge is deserving of a stamp,” he said.

The group received written support from Governor Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, and U.S. Representative Bart Stupak.

The Mackinac Bridge opened to traffic in 1957. It has a central span of 3,800 feet (1,158 meters) and an overall length of five miles (8,038 meters), and was the world's longest suspension bridge at the time of its completion, surpassing San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.