The Ambassador Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, with Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. It is the busiest international border crossing in North America in terms of trade volume: more than 25 percent of all merchandise trade between the United States and Canada crosses the bridge. A 2004 Border Transportation Partnership study showed that 150,000 jobs in the region and US$13 billion in annual production depend on the Detroit–Windsor international border crossing.^[3]

The bridge is owned by Grosse Pointe billionaire Manuel "Matty" Moroun through the Detroit International Bridge Company^[4] in the US and the Canadian Transit Company^[5] in Canada. In 1979, when the previous owners of the bridge put it on the New York Stock Exchange and shares were traded, Moroun was able to buy shares, eventually acquiring the bridge.^{[6] [7]} The bridge is responsible for 60-70% of commercial truck traffic in the region.^[8][9] Moroun also owns the Ammex Detroit Duty Free Stores at both the bridge and the tunnel.^[10] It is one of the only two Canada–US border crossings where people travel north into the United States, the other being the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel.

The Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) now the New International Trade Crossing, involving Canadian federal and provincial and U.S. federal and states, was accepted.^[11] and the U.S. government approved construction of the second bridge which would not twin the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, but create a completely new, government owned and operated crossing further downriver.

History

After the American Civil War, Detroit–Windsor was a center for railroads in the area. The Michigan Central and the Great Western railroads in addition to others operated on either side of the border connecting Chicago with the Atlantic Seaboard. To cross the Detroit River, these railroads operated ferries between docks on either side. The ferries lacked the capacity to handle the shipping needs of the railroads, and frequently there were 700–1,000 freight cars waiting to cross the river and passengers were delayed in transit. Warehouses in Chicago were forced to store grain that could not be shipped to eastern markets, and foreign goods were stored in eastern warehouses waiting shipment to the western United States. The net effect of these delays increased commodity prices in the country, and both merchants and farmers wanted a solution from the railroads.^[12]

The Michigan Central proposed the construction of a tunnel under the river with the support of their counterparts at the Great Western Railway. Construction started in 1871 and continued until ventilating equipment failed the next year; work was soon abandoned. Attention turned to the idea of building a railroad bridge over the river in 1873, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commissioned a study of a bridge over the Detroit River. Representatives of the shipping industry on the Great Lakes opposed any bridge with piers in the river as a hazard to navigation. Discussions continued for the remainder of the decade to no avail; a bridge over the Detroit River was not approved. The U.S. Congress requested a new study for a bridge in 1889, and again no bridge was approved. Finally, the Michigan Central built the Detroit River Tunnel in 1909–10 to carry trains under the river. This tunnel benefited the Michigan Central and Great Western railroads, but the Canada Southern Railway and other lines still preferred a bridge over the river.^[13]

Plans for a bridge were revived in 1919 to commemorate the end of World War I and to honor the "youth of Canada and the United States who served in the Great War."^[14]

Design

The bridge, over the Detroit River, had the longest suspended central span in the world when it was completed in 1929 — 1,850 feet (564 m), a title it would hold until the opening of the George Washington Bridge in 1931. The bridge's total length is 7,500 feet (2,286 m). Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1929. The architect was the McClintic-Marshall Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The bridge is styled in a mixture of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architectural designs, with some Gothic architecture blended in. It is made primarily out of steel; however, the two main towers on each side of the river are made of a steel-silicon alloy which rise up from concrete piers. The towers rise 386 feet (118 m) above the river, and plunge 115 feet (35 m) below the surface of the Detroit River. The towers are notable and unique for featuring (at the tops) the name of the bridge itself.^{[according to whom?][citation needed]}

The bridge is made up of 21,000 short tons (19,000 tonnes) of steel, and the roadway rises as high as 152 feet (46 m) above the Detroit River. Only the main span over the river is supported by suspension cables; the approaches to the main pillars are held up by steel in a cantilever truss structure.

The only bridge sidewalk on the south side used to allow pedestrians and bicycle has been closed for decades in violation of the bridge's charter. This was formally confirmed after the September 11 attacks.^[15] When the painting is being done on the south side of the bridge span, the sidewalk helps accommodate equipment and decrease the length of the lane that is cordoned off for painting.^[16] Originally painted gloss black, the bridge underwent a five-year refurbishment between 1995 to 2000, which included stripping and repainting the bridge teal.^[17]

Granite blocks, originally used on the U.S. side, were given to the Windsor Parks & Recreation Department, and now grace many of the pathways in Windsor parks ^[18]

Capacity

The four-lane bridge carries more than 10,000 commercial vehicles on a typical weekday. The Gateway Project, a major redesign of the U.S. plaza completed in July 2009, provides direct access to Interstate 96 and Interstate 75 on the American side and Highway 3 (and indirectly with Highway 401) on the Canadian side. The Canadian end of the bridge connects to busy city streets in downtown Windsor, leading to congestion.^[19]

The privately owned bridge company carries approximately 25% of trade between Canada and the United States.^[20][21]

Additional bridge proposals

The New International Trade Crossing to supplement the Ambassador Bridge has been proposed. Manuel "Matty" Moroun, owner of the Ambassador Bridge, has spoken out against this proposal. He has sued the governments of Canada and Michigan to stop its construction, and released a proposal to build a second span of the Ambassador Bridge (which he would own) instead.^[22] Critics suggest that Moroun's opposition is fueled by the prospect of lost profits from duty-free gasoline sales, which are exempt from about 60 cents per gallon in taxes even though the pump price to consumers is only a few cents lower.^[23] On May 5, 2011, a judge dismissed the case, citing a lack of reasoning for it to proceed.^[24] The company which owns the Ambassador Bridge contends that the NITC proposal would affect its proposal for a second span which would be built next to the Ambassador Bridge. Michigan and Canadian authorities continued to support the NITC proposal, since it directly connects the Canadian E.C. Row Expressway and the future extension of Highway 401 (which will run concurrently as a shared highway for 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) to the future crossing as the Windsor–Essex Parkway after 2013) with Interstate 75 and Interstate 96 in Michigan, bypasses Windsor's surface streets and reduces congestion.

An agreement announced June 15, 2012 ensures the New International Trade Crossing project should proceed, with the Canadian federal government funding bridge construction, land acquisition in Michigan and the construction of ramps from Interstate 75. The Canadian contribution will be repaid from bridge tolls, although to date no study has shown toll revenue forecasts.^[25]

The company which owns the Ambassador Bridge proposed its own twin span with six lanes to be built across the Detroit River.^[26] Cost estimates range from one to two billion U.S. dollars to build a second span. The new span would be a cable stayed bridge^[27] and would accommodate the bulk of the cross-border traffic with the original span being used for overflow traffic.^{[28][third-party source needed]} However, a twin span adjacent to the Ambassador Bridge, by itself, does not address Canadian concerns about traffic on Huron Church Road in Windsor, although a majority of the stop lights commonly cited will be removed by the planned expansion of the 401.^[29][30]

In April, 2013, the U.S. State Department issued a Presidential permit to the state of Michigan for a new international crossing between the United States and Canada.^[31] Moroun has filed a lawsuit attempting to block the issuance of this permit claiming that the Presidential permit process is unconstitutional.^[31]

Sumber :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Bridge