Labor Day Bridge Walk a success

Participants in the Portage Health Fitness Bridge Walk cross the Portage Lift Bridge on the way to Hancock on Labor Day, Sept. 3, 2007. Click on photo for larger version. (Photo © 2007 Gustavo Bourdieu)

HOUGHTON -- The Portage Health Fitness Bridge Walk in Houghton and Hancock attracted a large group of walkers of all ages on Labor Day, Sept. 3. Participants started at 9 a.m. in Houghton and walked from the Kestner Waterfront Park Pavilion across the Portage Lift Bridge, followed a circular route through Hancock and returned across the bridge for a walk through downtown Houghton and along the waterfront for a maximum distance of four miles. Comfortably cool and sunny weather made it an enjoyable trek.

Arnie Kinnunen, Portage Health Community Outreach Coordinator, was happy with the turnout.

"We had 220 people participate this year," he said.

According to the Detroit Free Press, about 57,000 people, led by Michigan's Governor Jennifer Granholm, "walked, jogged or wheeled" across the five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge for the traditional Labor Day walk, while 50 others swam across the straits below. The big bridge, linking Michigan's Lower Peninsula with the U.P., is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. Read the Associated Press article by John Flesher.