Portage Lake Lift Bridge

Michigan's Portage Lake Lift Bridge is more than just a beautiful and historic double-deck vertical lift bridge--it is also a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark as of June 17! At the time of its completion in 1959, its 4,584,000-lb. lift span was the world's heaviest. More than 25,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day, but it has a remarkable past, too. As the only land crossing over the Portage Canal, it played an enormous role in getting billions of pounds of copper from local mines to the rest of the country.

Explore many other enduring historic steel bridges through photos, videos, and maps with NSBA's A Century of American Steel Bridges timeline.