It's 1957 and Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas have always been divided by the five-mile-long Straits of Mackinac. To cross the straits requires an hour's ride in a ferryboat but the building of the Mackinac Bridge will change all that to a 15-minute ride in a car. Good news for many but not for those families whose livelihood has depended upon the ferryboat business.

Young Mark has been helping his father run their ferryboat, the Aurora, for as long as he can remember. This has been their way of life. But instead of dreading the "Mighty Mac" Bridge, Mark is eager to watch it emerge from the depths of the water. He knows how his father feels about the bridge though, so Mark keeps his anticipation to himself. Then his older brother takes a job as a steelworker on the project. How does one cross from the comfort of the past into the unknown possibilities of the future?

While telling the amazing story of the building of what was at that time the world's longest bridge, Gloria Whelan deftly portrays a family navigating the end of one way of life and the beginning of the next. Artist Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen captures the timeless majesty of the subject. This is a stirring tribute to not only the "Mighty Mac" Bridge, but also to the people who made a life on the Straits of Mackinac.

From the dust jacket