Mackinac Bridge north of Detroit closes after report of bomb threat, officials say; reopens after 3 hours

by 24USATVJuly 19, 2021, 10 a.m. 17

A bomb threat closed a suspension bridge north of Detroit for several hours Sunday, officials said.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority said on Twitter that the bridge was closed at 2:15 p.m. Sunday after law enforcement reported a bomb threat.

After an "extensive search," nothing was found, the authority said.

The bridge was reopened by about 5:10 p.m. local time, according to a post from a Mackinac County 911/ Emergency Management Twitter account connected to the Mackinac County website.

Both Michigan State Police and the Mackinac City Police Department were continuing to investigate the incident.

Mackinaw City police told 9&10News that a caller said that he had planted a bomb underneath the bridge. The caller said that he was in a car at a nearby gas station, though no car was ever found.

A spokesperson for the city police department could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Officials did not, at first, report the reason for the closure. The 911 Twitter account announced at about 2:30 p.m. that the bridge was closed to all traffic because of "an emergency incident." Citizens were told to avoid the area.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority also acknowledged the closure online, but did not provide details.

On the northern side of the bridge, traffic backed up for several miles, reported the Detroit News. Some took the holdup as a chance to get gas, flooding into local service stations.

Opened in 1957, the 26,372-foot-long Mackinac Bridge, which connects two peninsulas in Michigan, has the world's 24th-longest roadway, as well as the longest suspension between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere.

Police acknowledged to 9&10News that the bomb threat made Sunday was similar to the one made in downtown Harbor Springs, about 270 miles north of Detroit, in January of this year.