Another postcard view of the proposed international bridge. This one is more of a sketch than the last one which was a colourized version of this drawing. A neat view, and a postcard version I’ve never seen before.
Hope everyone had a good weekend.
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It sure would have beena nice looking bridge. Much better than what was built (damn Depression!)and much better than than the DRIC bridge is going to look like.
If social critics like James Howard Kunstler, Dmitry Orlov and Richard Heinberg are correct, we’ll be doing a lot less driving and a lot more walking in the near future as high energy prices and climate change alter every part of our daily lives and the geography of every town and city in North America. Why are we spending money on a new bridge and access highways that will be obsolete in the near future?
George I’m quite a Kunstler fan myself. I that we will be doing a lot less driving in the future.
Often I wonder why we keep headed in the direction we are.
The Ambdsssador Bridge design or constuction was not affected by the depression, the bridge was opened just before or just after the depression started.
Steampunk?
Was the designer of this the same who designed the Manhatten Bridge? They are remakably similar.
Aaron, although similar, the Manhattan Bridge was designed by Leon Moisseiff, who was a highly influential bridge designer in the 1920s-30s, and, as far as I can see, he didn’t have any direct hand in designing the old girl. He did inspire the designer of the Golden Gate Bridge among others, so the people who designed our bridge probably saw what he did, and applied it to what we see here as a concept. Perhaps this was the “fully-loaded” option?
The designer of the Ambassador Bridge (McClintic-Marshall Company) also designed the George Washington Bridge in New York. No matter the designer, they sure knew how to make them back then, huh? I miss the old black paint scheme. Made the bridge look very imposing and monumental. Now, with the teal paint scheme, you can see every little paint chip and stain…
How come manhattan bridge can have rail that isn’t at grade but we can’t?
1.Bridges over the East River don’t have to be as high as those over the Detroit River due to the nature of shipping traffic.
2. Subway transit trains can handle steeper grades than freight trains.
Thank you for clearing that up Joe, I was wondering the same thing.
George, the world is growing, not shrinking. The DRIC is not waste of money. However, it would not have been necessary, if they had built an actual highway to the Ambassador Bridge, instead of the empty promises of one, that were made in the ’30s.
The Ambassador Bridge is the best site for a bridge, and the US made all of their highways line up with it. Why couldn’t Canada have done the same, instead of ending the 401 many miles away and having city streets lead up to it? With the new bridge, you are much further south and only align with I-75, I believe. Although I don’t support much of what Mr. Moroun has done, he’s right and a twin span is the best idea…IF the 401 lead to its door-step. It should, but it doesn’t.
Twin the Ambassador Bridge an turn the west side of Windsor, Huron L and surronding areas into a wastland like around the American side.The Bridge Co. runs roughsod over city, and state laws, do we want that here?
THe 401 ways built in the fifties, the bridge was not that busy compared to now, the big upswing in traffic was the switch in shipping from rail to truck, and just in time delivery.
There were advertisements posted here from the 1930s for at least a couple of things, I think it was subdivisions in the South Windsor area that had “Huron Super Highway” listed where Huron Line is. There was a plan to turn it into a highway back then, but it never happened. And What exactly would you be saving by not turning it into a super highway? Some strip malls? Some run down houses? Plenty of houses were eliminated for the current plan. I was just saying that if the highway had been built 80 years ago, as promised, the border crossing would be in a much better situation right now. The other side of the bridge isn’t a wasteland because of the bridge, it’s the economic make-up of Detroit. And the Canadian side isn’t exactly an ideal community. I work in the US and cross the Ambassador every day. I was living in Tecumseh, but wanted to be closer to the bridge, but there was no way in hell I was moving in right next to it. South Windsor is close enough for me, thanks.
Every time I go through the Tunnel I get big drips. Let’s stop the discussion about a new bridge and focus on a new tunnel. It seems to take 20 years to get anything done and I’ll need an Amphicar by then.
The adds from eighty years ago about Ojibway being the sreele capatail of Canda, never happened the dreams went bust. The pople that where developing and wanted to build houses probaly where responsable for these ad?
Kings Highway #3 ran from Niagra Falls to the Ambassador Bridge this would be a super highway in the fortys and fifties, and even the sixties.
I don’t live on the west side of Windsor, but your description of the area is very ignorant. Also if you work in Detroit why not move their and live by the bridge ?
Richard, explain to me how my description is ignorant? It’s a dump. Why don’t you move to the West End and tell me how great it is? It isn’t. I won’t move to the US, because I have a VISA, not a green card. If I get another job, I can no longer own property and live in the US. I’ve always wanted to live in Canada, and work in the US.
And King’s (Queen’s) Hwy #3 still runs to the Ambassador Bridge. That’s the official name for Huron Line, however, it is NOT a highway. It has mover a dozen stop-lights and intersections and they’ve added more in the last 10 years. That’s not what I’d call a highway. It WAS a highway, but the city “planners” didn’t do any planning, and jut let the area develop and get congested with traffic, instead of upgrading the “highway.” But after how well the E.C. Row expressway went, maybe they were hesitant about trying to build another highway in the city. Actually, it should have been done before the EC Row, I think.
high·way
/?h??w?/
Noun
A main road, esp. one connecting major towns or cities.
(chiefly in official use) A public road.
Synonyms
freeway – expressway – motorway – road – highroad
Mr Google says Huron Line is a highway.
Mr. Uzzy says it has stop lights, and does not have on and on ramps. What does Mr. Google call that?
The area along Kings higway #3 south of the Huron Line Tecumsehrd intersection did not become part of Windsor until annaxation in 1965, before that it was Sandwitch West township
as was what was referred to as south Windsor. Every thing south of the CP tracks on Dougal Rd. was out of Windsor. if you want to blame people for poor planning atleast blame the right ones.
I believe in the fifties or early sixties the Provence of Ontario decided to refer to provencial roads as Kings highway, an not change signage with sex of Monarch.
The Ambassador Bridge was already a quarter century old before the concept of a highway with controlled access and no traffic lights came into the public mind. The Interstate Highway and Freeway system was first authorized by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. Earlier, in Ontario, Premier Mitchell Hepburn (Lib. in office 1934-42) had plans to double Highway 2 to four lanes but it would still pass through towns. Some second bridges were built in Kent County but no roads ever connected to them. That’s because the Progressive Conservatives took over power in 1943 and the Hepburn proposal was scrapped, Then the PCs remained in control until 1985. Even the 401 was just two lanes with oncoming traffic conflicts and some at-grade intersections in an area between Chatham and London until the mid-1960s. The EC Row Expressway was designed by the province with a right of way large enough to accommodate expansion. But in 1997 Premier Mike Harris turned control of the expressway over to the city to cut provincial costs. Municipal politicians have steadfastly blocked connecting the expressway to the 401 which would speed traffic to the ageing bridge. And they have got public votes for the stand.
Richard, I doubt there was many stop lights on that stretch in 1965. That would have been a good time (in hindsight) to make it a highway. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is (Sandwich West, Windsor, The Province of Ontario) the fact is, that it wasn’t done, and it should have been. It’s really quite simple, the 401 should lead right to the footings of the Ambassador bridge, so I guess that falls on the Province. This isn’t a developer whose plan didn’t come to be, this is vital infrastructure. It only makes sense to link major highways (401, and later EC Row) directly to an international border crossing, if plausible…and it was. Doing the same for the tunnel just doesn’t work for Windsor, although Detroit managed to do so, (in the ’60s, I believe).
Ontario/Windsor could have done it in the ’60s, or the ’70s, or the ’80s, or even the ’90s or aughts. I think the only reason they didn’t is that the bridge was privately owned, which shouldn’t have happened in the first place, if you ask me.
Uzzy.. Google calls it a highway….it is a highway. You’re confusing the term highway with, alternately, expressway or freeway.
I wouldn’t call it a highway because of all the lights and commercial establishments you can find along the stretch. A proper highway would be uninterrupted until it reached the toll.
Then, it should be an extension of the McDonald-Cartier Freeway and not the “highway” that it is today.
Jim, that’s what I mean. That’s what they have on the US side. That’s how the Blue Water Bridge is on the US side, as well. I’ve never crossed into the US on the Blue Water Bridge, so I don’t know really know what we have on the Canadian side, there.
This road vs highway matter calls for a referendum.
Uzzy the entrance at Sarnia is a highway entrance just like the American entrances at both bridges. It seems like Windsor is alone with their unique take on bridge entrances.