The Bridge at Mackinac Straits: Another Fiftieth Anniversary

The year 2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary not only of the Society for the History of Technology, but also of the five-mile suspension bridge across the straits between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan which provides highway access to Michigan’s upper peninsula. The two anniversaries are linked because the designer of the bridge, David B. Steinman, became the new society’s second president, hand-picked by its founder Melvin Kranzberg. As with his predecessor as president William F. Ogburn and his successor Lynn White jr., Steinman’s notoriety extended beyond his own professional precincts and Kranzberg believed that he would be in a position to enhance the society’s visibility. With SHOT itself, Steinman was only a figurehead. But there is much about his career that resonates with classic themes in SHOT’s literature—notably his role in establishing the National Society of Professional Engineers as a power center rivaling the ASCE and the other “founder societies.”