Building Bridges is officially open

 

As promised, Building Bridges, the Museum’s newest exhibit opened to the public at Noon today (9/26/14).  The exhibit includes 4 stations to experiment with bridge construction, and a set of kid-sized building blocks which, when correctly assembled, form a bridge large and sturdy enough for Museum visitors to cross.  The exhibit backdrop is filled with diagrams showing all kinds of bridges with category names, and the forces engineers must consider when designing bridges.  Famous bridges from around the U.S. are included for guests to try their hand at bridge recognition.

An entire wall depicts the Mighty Mac (Mackinac Bridge) at night.  The mural was painted by Hesper Smyth who volunteered several of her nights and her own paint.  The Mac wall includes Mac Facts and a graph of how tolls have changed over time.  On the exhibit entrance, there are photographs from the Mackinac’s Bridge 3 year construction process.

Museum President Matt Missias, artist Hesper Smyth and Museum Executive Director Mike Long performed the “ribbon cutting” to officially open the exhibit.

One down, many more to come!