US-Canada bridge opens in Detroit even as trade disputes test neighbours’ ties

A major new bridge linking Canada and the United States at Detroit, Michigan opened on Monday to lorries, cars and other vehicles, the climax of a years-long project that lately had been bruised a bit by international politics.

Descendants of Gordie Howe, the hockey legend whose name is on the bridge, were among the first to cross over the Detroit River, which separates Detroit from Windsor, Ontario.

The span, which was built by Canada at a cost of C$6.4 billion (US$4.5 billion), now becomes a less expensive alternative to the privately owned Ambassador Bridge, which had a monopoly on big lorries carrying goods worth billions between the two countries, especially in service to the car industry.

“There are thousands of trucks that go over” daily, said Kevin Ketels, a business professor who teaches supply chain management at Wayne State University.

Freddie Garrett, 81, said he regularly watched construction “ever since they put the foundation in” back in 2018. So naturally he showed up at Delray Park in Detroit to see the first vehicles moving overhead.

“It was amazing to see how they did it,” Garrett said. “They put up one section at a time and then they met together in the middle. I’m sure it will be there longer than I’ll be around.”