ANN ARBOR, MI – Two bridges John Dingell helped Ann Arbor rebuild are now named in his honor.

City Council voted unanimously Monday night, Feb. 3, to rename the East Stadium Boulevard bridges after the former congressman who died one year ago.

The two adjacent spans across State Street and the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks are now officially called the John D. Dingell Jr. Memorial Bridges.

“John Dingell lived his life with courage, honor, passion, and integrity, fighting for the betterment of our country and our state, and becoming one of the most influential lawmakers in our nation’s great history,” council stated in a resolution honoring Dingell and renaming the bridges.

Officials discussed putting up a plaque with the new name.

The Dearborn Democrat represented various parts of southeast Michigan in the U.S. House for 59 years, from December 1955 to January 2015, making him the longest-serving Congress member in U.S. history.

In his later years in office, his district included Ann Arbor, and in 2010 he helped the city secure $13.9 million in highly competitive federal grant funds to replace the crumbling Stadium bridges, which were more than 80 years old.

”We had to yell twice as loud to get this one,” Dingell said at a groundbreaking event for the project in November 2011.

The bridges serve as an important connection along a major east-west corridor in Ann Arbor, next to the University of Michigan football stadium and basketball arena.

Dingell was “the truest and most loyal fan of University of Michigan athletics,” the council resolution states.

Mayor Christopher Taylor and council members took turns sharing memories of Dingell Monday night, recalling how the city struggled to come up with funding to replace the bridges before Dingell delivered for the city.

Some said it’s symbolic that the bridges be named after him since he worked to bridge the political divide in Washington, working across the aisle to pass significant legislation.

“He gaveled in the vote for Medicare, helped lead the fight for the Civil Rights Act,” former President Barack Obama once said when he awarded Dingell the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014, just before he retired.

“John Dingell was a crusader for the environment, helping to author and shepherd to passage the Clean Air Act; the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969; the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, which formed the basis of the modern Federal Water Pollution Control Act; the Endangered Species Act of 1973; and the Safe Drinking Water Act,” council stated in its resolution Monday night.

Dingell also fought to make civil rights a part of the Democratic Party platform in 1960, standing up to people who believed it would alienate certain voters and declaring it was the right thing to do, the council resolution states.

Read the full resolution.

Council Member Zachary Ackerman, D-3rd Ward, recalled the time he spent with Dingell while working for his wife Debbie’s congressional campaign in 2014, spending long hours at their Dearborn residence.

“One of the highlights every day was getting to see John’s face, when he was here in district and not carrying on his obligations in D.C.,” Ackerman said. “He had this immense ability to make whoever he was speaking to feel special.”

That comes with a lot of humility from someone who was once called “the most powerful man in Washington never elected president,” Ackerman said, adding it would take 59 years to list all the things Dingell did to help constituents.

“We owe a tremendous amount to him,” he said, calling the renaming of the bridges “a small nod to that sacrifice.”

In addition to the memorial bridges in Ann Arbor, other facilities that pay tribute to the late congressman in their name include the John D. Dingell Transit Center in Dearborn and the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit.

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