SwtM - Ambassador Bridge Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

The Mitten Crew: [maroon]It's time to close down the fourth year of the [b]Smitten with the Mitten[/b] series.

Thanks to [b]The Mitten Crew[/b] (Climb Guy, bigcatcog, fitfinders, MI Barrel Makers, and bretina) who paid for the p@thtags/stamps/supplies and placed the caches in order to make this series possible.

We hope you enjoyed the series.[/maroon]

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Hidden : 5/10/2013
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:



Located within Burton Park. Please take note of parking coordinates.

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.

The bridge is owned by Grosse Pointe billionaire Manuel "Matty" Moroun through the Detroit International Bridge Company in the US and the Canadian Transit Company in Canada, and at one time it was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The bridge is responsible for 60-70% of commercial truck traffic in the region.

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.

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. 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."

The bridge, over the Detroit River, had the longest suspended central span in the world when it was completed in 1929 — 1,850 feet, a title it would hold until the opening of the George Washington Bridge in 1931. The bridge's total length is 7,500 feet. Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1929.

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 above the river, and plunge 115 feet below the surface of the Detroit River. The bridge is made up of 21,000 short tons of steel, and the roadway rises as high as 152 feet 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. 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. 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

Visit 14 geocaches in the SwtM series. At each geocache collect a letter and number combination. Insert them into the phrase FiTS LIKe A GlOVE. Use the coordinates from the phrase to find the final geocache and become a Mitten Master
2013 Smitten with the Mitten caches
Whites Covered Bridge St. Joseph River Bridge Sixth Street Bridge Frankenmuth Covered Bridge
Mackinac Bridge Langley Covered Bridge Lake Lift Bridge International Bridge
Fallasburg Covered Bridge Croswell Swinging Bridge Ambassador Bridge  
Ada Covered Bridge Ackley Covered Bridge Blue Water Bridge Mitten Master

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