North County Line Road Phantom Bridge, Milan, Michigan

In the extreme northwest corner of Monroe County, Michigan sits a very rare steel stringer bridge with a lattice railing. Built in 1910 the poor bridge has been closed for sometime due to the fact that it has deteriorated badly which makes it a “Phantom Bridge”. More than half of the bridge has now rusted away!

The bridge carries North County Line Road and spans North Macon Creek. The bridge is just a little less than 30 feet long. At one time it had a load limit of 26 tons, then dropped down to 15 tons, then 3 tons and eventually closed in 2012. The closure was brought about due to the east railing falling off, the concrete deck was failing, the steel beams underneath were either missing or completely rusted through with holes and the North and South abutments were failing as well.

The State of Michigan has a “Bridge Bundling Program” where older bridges like this are rebuilt to be functioning again. This bridge was on that list up until last year when funding ran low. The county hopes to have this bridge brought back onto that list at some point in the future.

GPS Location: 42º04’52.7″N 83º46’26.1″W