Mike Connell of the Port Huron Times Herald wrote that one of the oddest events in Swainson’s term as governor came on Feb. 28, 1962, when the federal government ordered Michigan to stop collecting tolls on the Blue Water International Bridge, which connects Port Huron and Canada.
“Moments before midnight, Swainson went to the bridge and paid the final toll. As he handed the money to the toll collector, he said, ‘Well, Dad, I guess this puts you out of a job.’”
The toll taker was the governor’s 57-year-old father who had “collected tolls on the bridge for four years before his son laid him off.”
Source : Berry Craig, “Michigan’s Second-Youngest Governor Was a Double Amputee”, O&P News, June 2012.