Essay On The Ambassador Bridge

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Recommended: Railroads in the late 1800s

Following the American Civil War, the use of railroads for trade was booming. The Detroit, Michigan and Windsor Ontario border, separated by the Detroit River, was a center for railroads at the time with the Michigan Central and Great Western railroads operating on their respective sides of the border. In the early 20th century, the railroads used ferries to transport shipments across the river. As production and population grew, so did the shipments of goods, specifically grain. An increasing delay in the supply and demand of agricultural products was hurting the economy for both farmers and consumers. In 1909, a tunnel was constructed to transport trains under the Detroit River but the need for a bridge with mass transportation abilities was still needed. This led to the construction of the Ambassador Bridge in 1929, funded by financier Joseph Bower and engineered and constructed by the heralded Pittsburgh McClintic-Marshall Company. No one could have ever foreseen the societal and economical impact the decision to engineer a bridge would have.

At the time of its construction in 1929, the Ambassador Bridge was the largest spanned suspension bridge at 564 meters until the George Washington Bridge was built. It was an engineering masterpiece at the time. The total bridge length is 2,286 meters and rises to 118 meters above the river. Suspension cables support the main span of the Ambassador Bridge and the main pillars under the bridge are supported by steel in a cantilever truss structure. In total, the McClintic-Marshall masterpiece is comprised of 21,000 tons of steel. The immense socio-economical impact that the Ambassador Bridge has on transportation and trade is imperative for daily interaction between the Un...

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... Another bridge would only decrease the profits of the Ambassador Bridge. Although Matty Moroun has tried to sue the governments of Michigan and Ontario over the past decade, a permit to start construction on a new bridge was passed and announced to the public on April 15th, 2014. The new bridge is to be called the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) or the New International Trade Crossing (NITC). The new bridge is expected to create thousands of new jobs and continue the economic prosperity of the two countries in that region. Mark Butler, the Senior Communications Advisor for Windsor Gateway Project with Transport Canada was quoted saying, “The Windsor-Detroit corridor is Canada’s most important trade artery and the busiest commercial land border crossing in North America.” The bridge is to be 6 lanes wide and expected to be operational in 2022.

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