Wayne County Bridge

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Wayne County Bridge
Crosses	Trenton Channel of Detroit River
Locale	Wayne County, Michigan, Grosse Ile and Trenton
Maintained by	Wayne County Road Commission
Design	Swing bridge
Opening date	September 1931

The Wayne County Bridge is a swing bridge that crosses the Trenton Channel of the Detroit River connecting Grosse Ile Township, Michigan to the mainland in Trenton, Michigan which is located in Wayne County, Michigan.

[edit] History

During 1931, Wayne County converted the Michigan Central Railroad's defunct rail bridge crossing the Trenton Channel into the Wayne County Bridge for use by vehicular, bike and pedestrian traffic. Canada Southern Bridge Company, a subsidiary of the Canada Southern Railroad Company, built the rail bridge in 1873. A number of the original support piers and other parts of the bridge served as the foundation for the Wayne County Bridge.

The rail tracks across the island were replaced by a roadway that is now known as Grosse Ile Parkway. The Wayne County Bridge is commonly called the "Free Bridge" by Grosse Ile residents because of the absence of a user fee toll for crossing. Today, about three-quarters of the vehicle traffic going to and from Grosse Ile travels over the Wayne County Bridge while one-quarter crosses the Grosse Ile Toll Bridge.

Wayne County has announced that the bridge will be closed starting in early May 2007 for at least six months to enable the replacement of the bridge deck and related major repairs. The county last replaced the bridge deck in 1979. During this period of closure, the only way for vehicles to travel to and from the island will be through the "Toll Bridge."