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Ambassador Bridge
The busiest U.S.-Canada commercial crossing
The Ambassador Bridge is a suspension bridge over the Detroit River linking Detroit, Michigan, with Windsor, Ontario, and it carries the largest volume of trade of any crossing on the U.S.-Canada border - by some measures a quarter of all goods traded between the two countries. Opened in 1929, it was briefly the longest suspension bridge in the world, and its blue-painted span remains the symbol of one of the most important trade arteries in North America.
Just-in-time supply chains for the auto industry run straight across it, with trucks shuttling parts between factories on both sides, so even a brief blockade here - as during protests in 2022 - can stall assembly lines across the continent. Unusually, the bridge is privately owned, and long-running congestion led the two governments to build a new public crossing nearby, the Gordie Howe International Bridge, to add capacity for the future.