Vinsetta Boulevard Bridges - Royal Oak, MI
Posted by: 
scrapcat
N 42° 29.981 W 083° 09.775
17T E 322276 N 4707524
Once upon a time, Vinsetta Boulevard was the lovely, winding Red Run River. Today, the river is gone (imprisoned in a large pipe underground) but these four lovely bridges still stand.
Waymark Code: WMCHZR
Location: Michigan, United States
Date Posted: 09/10/2011
Views: 5
According to C&G News (
visit link)
"The Red Run, Royal Oak’s “ghost river,” was important to the early residents, though now it’s nearly buried in sewers in Oakland County. “You can drive street to street and follow the course of an old river,” Bob Muller, a local historian, said. The dips in some roads are signs of where the creeks and streams used to flow.
There are even some bridges. On Vinsetta Boulevard, between Woodward Avenue and 12 Mile Road, the decorative concrete bridges in the road’s median once served a real purpose — to bridge the stream, Muller said. “It’s a remnant of something real,” he said."
A little history per the article A River Ran Through It (
visit link)
"In fully developed urban areas, there may be hidden signs of what the land was like before the building of homes and businesses. A ghost image of rivers and creeks, long dry; can still be seen running through the grid pattern of roads and streets. Royal Oak has been a community for almost two hundred years. By the time it became a city in 1921, large areas were already filled with homes on small lots. This early development had turned Red Run, the small river within this community, into a drain. With no environmental thoughts or laws, Red Run's south branch was buried in the mid-1930s and the north branch in the late 1960s, becoming part of the storm and sanitary drain system for the fast growing northern suburbs. With a little imagination and research, what Red Run looked like and what lived there can still be seen."
Now the bridges serve as “Michigan ‘lefts’” (or turnarounds) for cars navigating on this divided street. The coordinates listed will take you to the first bridge and follow the road for 3 more within a 1/2-mile.
Bridge #1: Mayfield N 042 29.981 W 083 09.775
Bridge #2: Greenleaf N 042 30.021 W 083 09.737
Bridge #3: Woodsboro N 042 30.096 W 083 09.723
Bridge #4: Cedar Hill N 042 30.154 W 083 09.704