The
Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge spanning the
St. Clair RiverThe St. Clair River is a river in central North America which drains Lake Huron into Lake St Clair, forming part of the International Boundary between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan...
that links
Port HuronPort Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 32,338 at the 2000 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administratively autonomous. It is joined by the Blue Water Bridge over the St. Clair River to Sarnia,...
,
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
,
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to
Point Edward, OntarioPoint Edward is a village in the Canadian province of Ontario. Adjacent to the city of Sarnia in Lambton County, Point Edward sits opposite Port Huron, Michigan at the mouth of the St. Clair River...
, a small suburb of
SarniaSarnia is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada . It is the largest city on Lake Huron and is located where the upper Great Lakes empty into the St. Clair River....
,
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Blue Water Bridge connects with
Highway 402Highway 402 is a 400-Series Highway in southwestern Ontario, Canada that runs 103 km from the Blue Water Bridge in Point Edward to Highway 401 in London. It is one of two vital trade links between Ontario and the Midwestern United States and is generally not as congested as other routes...
in
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
and with both
Interstate 69Interstate 69 is an Interstate Highway in the United States. It exists in two parts: a completed highway from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, and a mostly-proposed extension southwest to the Mexican border in Texas...
and
Interstate 94Interstate 94 is the northernmost east-west Interstate Highway, connecting the Great Lakes and Intermountain regions of the United States. Its western terminus is in Billings, Montana at a junction with Interstate 90; its eastern terminus is the U.S...
in
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The original span is a
cantilever truss bridgeA cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
and the second span is a continuous tied-arch bridge.
The first bridge is a cantilever
trussA truss bridge is a bridge composed of connected elements which may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges...
with a total length of
6,178 feet (1,883 m).
The
Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge spanning the
St. Clair RiverThe St. Clair River is a river in central North America which drains Lake Huron into Lake St Clair, forming part of the International Boundary between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan...
that links
Port HuronPort Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 32,338 at the 2000 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administratively autonomous. It is joined by the Blue Water Bridge over the St. Clair River to Sarnia,...
,
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
,
USAThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to
Point Edward, OntarioPoint Edward is a village in the Canadian province of Ontario. Adjacent to the city of Sarnia in Lambton County, Point Edward sits opposite Port Huron, Michigan at the mouth of the St. Clair River...
, a small suburb of
SarniaSarnia is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada . It is the largest city on Lake Huron and is located where the upper Great Lakes empty into the St. Clair River....
,
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Blue Water Bridge connects with
Highway 402Highway 402 is a 400-Series Highway in southwestern Ontario, Canada that runs 103 km from the Blue Water Bridge in Point Edward to Highway 401 in London. It is one of two vital trade links between Ontario and the Midwestern United States and is generally not as congested as other routes...
in
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
and with both
Interstate 69Interstate 69 is an Interstate Highway in the United States. It exists in two parts: a completed highway from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, and a mostly-proposed extension southwest to the Mexican border in Texas...
and
Interstate 94Interstate 94 is the northernmost east-west Interstate Highway, connecting the Great Lakes and Intermountain regions of the United States. Its western terminus is in Billings, Montana at a junction with Interstate 90; its eastern terminus is the U.S...
in
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. The original span is a
cantilever truss bridgeA cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...
and the second span is a continuous tied-arch bridge.
The first bridge is a cantilever
trussA truss bridge is a bridge composed of connected elements which may be stressed from tension, compression, or sometimes both in response to dynamic loads. Truss bridges are one of the oldest types of modern bridges...
with a total length of
6,178 feet (1,883 m). The main span is
871 feet (265 m). The second bridge is a continuous tied
archAn arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either side...
with a total length of
6,109 feet (1,862 m). The main span is
922 feet (281 m).
Together, the two bridges are one of the busiest transportation arteries between the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the second-busiest crossing after the
Ambassador BridgeThe Ambassador Bridge is a suspension bridge that connects Detroit, Michigan, in the United States, with Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. The bridge is owned by the Detroit International Bridge Co., which is controlled by Grosse Pointe billionaire Manuel "Matty" Moroun. The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel also...
at Detroit-Windsor. They also provide one of the four shortest routes of land travel between the eastern seaboard of the United States, and the central United States. The Blue Water Bridges are jointly owned and maintained by Canada and the United States. The Blue Water Bridge Authority is in charge of the Canadian side, and the
Michigan Department of TransportationThe Michigan Department of Transportation is a constitutional government agency in the U.S. state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate, US and state highways in Michigan with the exception of the Mackinac...
(MDOT) is in charge of the U.S. side. The bridges charge a toll, which is used to pay for bridge maintenance and operations.
History
The first bridge was opened to traffic on October 10, 1938. The lead engineer was
Ralph ModjeskiRalph Modjeski was a Polish-born American engineer who achieved prominence as a pre-eminent bridge designer in the United States.-Life:...
. This bridge originally had two lanes for vehicles as well as sidewalks; the latter were removed in the 1980s to make room for a third lane for automobiles. The
third lane for each directionA reversible lane is a lane in which traffic may travel in either direction, depending on certain conditions...
started from the apex of the bridge in order to accommodate long lineups entering each sides' respective border crossings.
Traffic volumes steadily increased, spurred by the completion of
Highway 402Highway 402 is a 400-Series Highway in southwestern Ontario, Canada that runs 103 km from the Blue Water Bridge in Point Edward to Highway 401 in London. It is one of two vital trade links between Ontario and the Midwestern United States and is generally not as congested as other routes...
in 1982 which provided a continuous freeway link to
401The King's Highway 401 is a highway that extends across Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the longest 400-Series Highway in Ontario, and one of the widest and busiest highways in the world. In fact, the segment of Highway 401 passing through Toronto has the distinction of being North America's...
. As a precursor to the upcoming twinning project, the customs and toll collection booths on both sides were extensively reconfigured in the early 1990s. In the US, the
I-beamI-beams are beams with an
I- or H-shaped cross-section. The horizontal elements are flanges, while the vertical element is the web...
girder
overpassA viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
was replaced by a much wider
embankmentTo keep a road or rail line straight and/or flat, and where the comparative cost or practicality of alternate solutions is prohibitive, the land over which the road or rail line will travel is built up to form an embankment. An embankment is therefore in some sense the opposite of a cutting, and...
, which also added a four-story customs office building in the center. On the Canadian side this necessitated the demolition of the original booths that had been in use since 1938, these booths were noted for their
Art DecoArt Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting the decorative arts such as architecture, interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts, and film...
style but they were too low to accommodate
semi-trailer truckA semi-trailer truck, also known as tractor-trailer or articulated truck or articulated lorry, often abbreviated to artic, is an articulated vehicle consisting of a towing engine ,...
s which had been directed to the outside.
During the debate over five possible designs in 1994-95, over half of public opinion had mostly favored a duplicate of the first bridge, while the
cable-stayed bridgeA cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns , with cables supporting the bridge deck....
came in second with around 21%. The Blue Water Bridge Authority had rejected both designs, due to the duplicate creating a false sense of history, while the cable-stayed option was feared to overshadow the existing bridge. Another cost-effective but unpopular design was the parallel truss. The continuous-tied arch design, which was a distant third place in polls, was chosen for two reasons. One was that it blends in with the original span yet stands out on its own, and the other is lower maintenance costs because fewer spans are involved.
US engineers learned
metricThe International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system devised around the convenience of the number ten. It is the world's most widely used system of measurement, both in everyday commerce and in science.The older metric system included several groups...
before the project commenced. The twinning project was a combined effort between Modjeski & Masters — U.S Engineers and Buckland & Taylor Ltd. - Canadian Engineers. During the construction, two temporary masts were erected to assist in the construction of the tied arch; the towers were painted red and lighted, enabling them to be seen from afar. The approaches to the new bridge use
box girderA box or tubular girder is a girder that forms an enclosed tube with multiple walls, rather than an I or H beam. Originally constructed of riveted wrought iron, they are now found in rolled or welded steel, aluminium extrusions or pre-stressed concrete....
s, compared to the original which hold up the road deck with trusses.
The second three-lane bridge, just south of the first bridge, opened on July 22, 1997. The first bridge was immediately closed afterward for extensive renovation and reopened in 1999. The newer bridge used a similar 3-lane configuration for a couple years. A flyover ramp on the US side temporarily diverted westbound traffic from the new bridge to the toll plaza, which was blocked off after the original bridge was rehabilitated.
In March 2009,
Prime MinisterThe Prime Minister of Canada is the primary Minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government of Canada. The office is not outlined in any of the documents that constitute the written portion of the constitution of Canada; executive authority is formally vested in the...
Stephen HarperStephen Joseph Harper, PC, MP is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada, and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became Prime Minister after his party won a minority government in the January 2006 federal election...
announced
$The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies. It is divided into 100 cents...
13.5 million in Canadian dollars (
$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
10.8 million in
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dollars) in funding would go toward upgrading the Blue Water Bridge. The funding will include new approach lines and inspection booths, reduce border congestion and improve trade. The work is scheduled to begin in May 2009.
Depiction in popular culture
The Blue Water Bridge was featured in the
Kim BasingerKimila Ann "Kim" Basinger is an American film actress and former fashion model.Following her role as a Bond girl in Never Say Never Again , Basinger received a Golden Globe nomination for her work in The Natural...
movie
Bless the ChildBless the Child is a American thriller/horror film directed by Chuck Russell. It is based on a novel written by Cathy Cash Spellman.-Plot:...
(2000), where it represented a
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
bridge. It is also featured in the
Danny DeVitoDaniel Michael "Danny" DeVito, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer, who first gained prominence for his portrayal of "Louie De Palma" on the ABC and NBC TV series Taxi...
movie
Renaissance Man (1994), directed by
Penny MarshallPenny Marshall is an American actress, producer and director.After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley...
.
External links
Aerial views of the Blue Water Bridge http://www.aerialpics.com/F/bwbridge.html