Civil Engineering History Overshadowed by Politics

Abstract

Windsor, Ontario, boasts the busiest border crossing between Canada and the United States of America with over 40,000 people and $323 million worth of goods crossing the border daily. The vast majority of this traffic is facilitated by the Ambassador Bridge. Completed in 1929, the Ambassador Bridge for a short time had the longest span of any bridge in the world. While it is common for large infrastructure to become iconic symbols of cities and tourist destinations (e.g., Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Brooklyn Bridge in New York), most residents of the Windsor area would shy away from selecting the bridge as a defining icon. In this paper, the history of the Ambassador Bridge is discussed ending with the current construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge. The relationship between the owners and local community will be discussed. It is proposed that the political issues with the bridge have diminished the significance and engineering history of the bridge.