An oldie but a goodie here today. An early rendering of the proposed Detroit-Windsor bridge that didn’t happen. Charles Evan Fowler an engineer from New York came up with this proposal, but he was unable to raise the funds needed to make this happen. This plan had traffic, pedestrians and streetcars above, and rail lines under the main roadway.
Well, that would have been nice.
Geezz, Windsor got the short end of the stick even back then??
Although an appealing design in that it included streetcar and rail, I believe it was not adopted because of the grade requirents.
A stunning bridge of what could have been. Can’t wait to see what the new DRIC bridge will look like….boring.
Anyone know where this was supposed to be located?
a bridge with street car and rail under neath that would have been nicer than what we have today maybe we could do that with the DRIC bridge it comes down in DELRAY JCT on the Michigan side a major CSX rail line
Rilways do not like anything greater than a 1% grade. Due to marine traffic on the river, it would be a difficult thing to satisfy. The railroad accomodation would require a long distance approach in order to maintain that grade level. A tunnel is a much more feasible solution for rail.
Good design. Imagine if the DRIC bridge looked like the Brooklyn Bridge, or incorporated some brick or tower design into it. That would be beautiful.
My great great grandfather Gorge Battle was a underwater welder on the bridge. They were going to make the bridge as seen in this photo. But there was two cave ins at the footings on the bridge on the Canadian side. There was about 200 workers buried alive. After this happened two times they went with what we now have for the bridge.
A more accurate year would be 1919. Fowler obtained the franchise from the US and Canadian Governments. He was working in conjunction with railroad interests. However due to the height requirements and the grade requirements of a railroad, the amount of land which would have been required made it prohibitively expensive and the railroad interests involved backed out.
This same franchise would be picked up in 1924 by Bower to construct the Ambassador Bridge.
I don’t know about that Rob. Seems like a tall tail.
200+ would have been major news.
That’s a good looking rendering, but let’s not forget the Ambassador is a fine looking bridge in its own right.
Nice lattice ironwork. Very reminiscent of the Manhattan Bridge in NYC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Bridge
Just found some interesting video of the building the Ambassador Bridge.
part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clcQk76-N2k
part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNpt0BUe0Q4
part 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-I_jDfrBnk
part 4 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwwRoKezt8M
Part 5 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o-nKLZK7HA
Part 6 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TAlS-FLzo0