Mackinac Bridge reopens after bomb threat

The Mackinac Bridge has reopened Sunday afternoon after a bomb scare.

The bridge connecting Michigan’s two peninsulas reopened shortly after 5 p.m. after being closed in both directions for two-and-a-half hours, said Michigan State Police.

Boat traffic was also diverted away from below the bridge by the Coast Guard.

The police didn’t release any additional details.

The bridge's Twitter account @mackinacbridge had asked people to stay away from the bridge.

"Please stay clear of the area," it tweeted at 2:28 p.m.

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

Fred Derksen, who was heading home from a kayak symposium in Grand Marais, took the delay in stride.

He said it was inconvenient to wait but important to ensure the bridge was safe.

“Unfortunately, this is the world we live in,” he said about the bomb threat. “It may just be a hoax but it has to be taken seriously.

As Derksen, a retired MSU professor who lives in Bath, was waiting near the bridge, he came across several other people who attended the symposium. He knew who they were because, like him, they had kayaks attached to their vehicles.

He said they had all left the symposium around the same time and had reached the bridge shortly after it was closed.

The bridge's Twitter account said it will provide updates when it receives them.

Come back to The Detroit News for more on this story.