November 15, 1929: The Ambassador Bridge Opens

November 15, 1929: The Ambassador Bridge opens, connecting Detroit, Michigan, in the United States with Windsor, Ontario, Canada, over the Detroit River.

Detroit and Buffalo are the only major American cities on the border with Canada, our northern neighbor. Seattle is 111 miles away, Boston 220, Minneapolis 300, and New York 330. And because of the bend of the Detroit River, Detroit is the only place where you can go from north to south, and go from America to Canada.

The Bridge followed a ferry system, and a rail tunnel that opened in 1910. It was, itself, followed by the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel in 1930.

Since the establishment of the Interstate Highway System, going into Detroit, the road becomes Interstate 75 and Interstate 96. Going into Windsor, it becomes Ontario Highway 3.

The Bridge is privately owned: Even in the Roaring Twenties, neither the State of Michigan, nor the Province of Ontario, nor either country's federal government wanted to fund its construction. So Michigan automakers, including Henry Ford, put up the money.

In 1979, trucking executive Manuel "Matty" Moroun, like entertainer Danny Thomas a Detroit native of Lebanese descent, bought the Bridge, and maintained and operated it through his Detroit International Bridge Company for the rest of his life. It may have been personal: He claimed that his family moved from Windsor to Detroit when construction for the bridge on the Windsor side led to the demolition of the family home.

The Ambassador Bridge is the busiest international border crossing in North America in terms of trade volume, carrying more than 25 percent of all merchandise trade between the United States and Canada by value.

Because the Bridge's duty-free gasoline sales are so lucrative, Moroun fought tooth and nail against all attempts to build an additional bridge. He offered to spend his own money to build a parallel span to the Ambassador, as had been done with many other bridges, including the Delaware Memorial. He went so far as to build a base structure for an approach on the Detroit side.

He sued both the State of Michigan and the Canadian federal government to prevent a new bridge from being approved. For the last few years of his life, he also owned the Michigan Central Station, to keep rail traffic, passenger and freight alike, into and out of Detroit, to a minimum, raising the value of his Bridge.

Moroun died in 2020, clearing the way for the construction of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which is scheduled to open in 2024. It also cleared the way for Ford Motor Company to buy the Station, and use it for corporate purposes. (UPDATE: The Howe Bridge is now set to open in 2025.)

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November 15, 1929 was a Friday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL season had just started, no games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.