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The Detroit-Windsor corridor handles more trade than any other single land crossing in North America — nearly 30% more than the U.S.-Mexico crossing at Laredo and more than three times any other U.S.-Canada border point. The Gordie Howe Bridge adds capacity and public ownership to a corridor historically controlled by a single private span.
The Gordie Howe Bridge supplements — but does not replace — the privately-owned Ambassador Bridge, which has operated since 1929 and remains the single busiest commercial crossing. The new public bridge, financed overwhelmingly by Canadian taxpayers through the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, shifts the ownership dynamic: for the first time, a major crossing in this corridor is government-controlled on the Canadian side. That structural change is what transformed a ribbon-cutting into a geopolitical negotiating chip.