M-94 is a state trunkline in the

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

of the US state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

. It runs for from K. I. Sawyer to Manistique. The highway is part of the

Lake Superior Circle Tour The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. It consists of routes for circumnavigating the lakes, either individually or collectively. It was designated by the Great ...

during a concurrency with M-28. M-94 crosses the Siphon Bridge in Manistique, unique for the fact that the bridge roadway is below water level. M-94 has been realigned several times. It has had its own roadway between the M-28 junctions in Munising and Shingleton. Other changes have flip-flopped M-94 with M-28 between Harvey and Munising and extended it across the former K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base.

Route description

M-94 begins at an intersection with M-553 and crosses the former K. I. Sawyer AFB. Then it overlaps

US 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part in southern Florida, from Naples to Miami, ...

for a little over a mile near

Skandia Skandia is a financial services corporation in Sweden. History Skandia started out as a Swedish insurance company in 1855. Today the brand operates in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Skandia also operates an internet bank called Skan ...

. East of Skandia, M-94 runs through forest lands and serves the communities of Sundell and Rumely before entering Eben Junction. There M-94 intersects the southern section of H-01. Further east is Chatham where there are junctions with the northern section of H-01 and M-67. M-94 turns southerly briefly before returning to an east–west direction to head to the community of Forest Lake and ultimately Munising. There M-94 joins a concurrency with M-28 and the

from Munising to Shingleton. Until the turn at Shingleton, the route is more decidedly east–west than north–south. Between Shingleton and Manistique, M-94 is more north–south. South of Shingleton, M-94 runs through forest lands as a part of the Great Manistique Swamp. Along the way are national forest campgrounds located near Steuben. South of Crooked Lake, M-94 curves to the east before turning almost due south to the Manistique area. In Manistique, M-94 enters town on North 5th St before turning to follow Deer Street and River Street. On River Street, the trunkline uses the Siphon Bridge to cross the

Manistique River The Manistique River ( ') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed December 19, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Michigan that winds southward through the central Upper Penin ...

and then uses Elk and Maple streets before terminating at

US 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. Unlike some routes, whi ...

at Lakeshore Drive.

Siphon Bridge

In Manistique, M-94 crosses the

on the "Siphon Bridge". Built as a part of a raceway flume on the river, the water level actually used to be higher than the road surface. This produced a siphon effect, giving the bridge its nickname. The Manistique Pulp and Paper Company was organized in 1916 and needed a dam on the Manistique River to supply their mill. This dam would have needed to flood a large section of the city. The shallow river banks meant difficulties in any bridge construction. Instead of expensive dikes, a concrete tank was built lengthwise in the river bed. The sides of this tank provided man-made banks higher than the natural banks. The Michigan

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

described the bridge as having, "concrete bulkheads, formed by the side spans of the bridge,

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

allow the mill to maintain the water level several feet above the roadbed." The bridge acted as a

siphon A siphon (from grc, σίφων, síphōn, "pipe, tube", also spelled nonetymologically syphon) is any of a wide variety of devices that involve the flow of liquids through tubes. In a narrower sense, the word refers particularly to a tube in a ...

because the water level was above the roadway, and the structure has been featured in

Ripley's Believe It or Not! ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' fea ...

History

M-94 bridge over East Branch Chocolay River

The December 1927 Michigan State Highway Department ''Official Highway Service Map'' shows M-94 routed from Au Train west to Munising and further along its current routing to Manistique. In 1928 or 1929, M-94 was rerouted to run along Munising-Van Meer-Shingleton Road (now H-58 and H-15) and southerly to Shingleton. This routing was abandoned on November 7, 1963. It was later extended westward to Harvey in 1939. In 1941, the portion of M-94 west from Munising to Harvey was made a part of M-28, and M-94 was extended along its current routing from Munising to US 41. M-94 was extended for the last time in 1998 over US 41 and through the old

K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base is a decommissioned United States Air Force (USAF) installation in Marquette County, Michigan, south of the city of Marquette. Near the center of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the base operated for nearly forty years ...

to end at a newly designated M-553. In October 2016, heavy rainfall cause the culverts directing the Chocolay River under M-94 in West Branch Township to fail. The

Michigan Department of Transportation The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstat ...

(MDOT) started construction of a , concrete, single-span bridge at a cost of $1.8 million on March 6, 2017, and opened the structure to traffic on June 28 of the same year.

Major intersections

References

External links