The Ambassador Bridge is one of the busiest international bridges located in North America. It is one of the major entrance points in the U.S. The bridge is very important because it spans from Detroit, Michigan to Windsor, Ontario (Detroit Historical Society, n.d.). Moreover, the Bridge is important in North America because it helps in handling about a quarter of all trade that is conducted between the U.S. and Canada (Detroit Historical Society, n.d.). Due to this, Canada and the U.S. are said to have one of the largest trade relationships in the world. Across the Detroit River, a lot of people have been crossing there since the 19th century using railroads on the edge of the river and boats across it. As such, to help cut down the cost of crossing the Detroit River, the bridge had to be constructed.
The construction of the bridge begun in August 16th 1927 and was concluded in November 6th 1929. The company that undertook this humongous task was McClintic-Marshall Company. The bridge is said to have a main span of about 1,850 feet, 152 feet above the river at its apex, and stretched 7,490 feet long (Detroit Historical Society, n.d.). To be able to attain such an ambitious project, the construction of the is said to have cost about $23.5 million (Detroit Historical Society, n.d.). The amount of money that was invested in this project can be said to be worth it because it has largely helped the two countries over the years.
After its completion, it led to a lot of benefits between the two countries. For instance, it allowed shipping companies to easily transport their products across the two borders, it enabled the alleviation of challenges that were associated with train transportation, it has facilitated the ease of movement of citizens in and out of both countries and so forth (Detroit Historical Society, n.d.). While constructing the bridge, it is difficult to accurately point out what was done wrong while constructing this bridge. It has been standing for over 90 years serving a lot of people (Detroit Historical Society, n.d.). The bridge helps a lot in transportation with an approximate of 10,000 cars crossing on a typical weekday.
The bridge has impacted the economies of the two countries positively because the transportation of goods across the border is much faster. This allows for trade to be effectively and efficiently conducted by both the U.S. and Canada (Tyrell, 2015). To ensure this, there has been an upward trend in developing logistic centres and things like truck depots where trucker can easily drop goods from either side of the border (Tyrell, 2015). Due to this, a lot of jobs have been created helping the countries increase the growth of their GDPs. Additionally, it has allowed for tourism to take place because people can easily travel across either side of the border to visit the places that they wish to see.
Even though the bridge is beneficial to the two countries, it has brought along a few challenges. For instance, health care workers have been easily recruited from Canada to Michigan bringing about a shortage in Canada. The capacity, congestion, and delays at the border have been a serious challenge for many years because of trucks. Even though the bridge has brought about these challenges, they cannot be said to outweigh its benefits because they can be easily solved. To ensure the efficiency of the bridge, the two countries have to contribute while maintaining because it serves both of them (Luiza, 2015). For instance, Canada pays about $4 billion for a new Detroit-Windsor bridge.