Detroit’s new bridge to Canada is done but can’t open yet

A new crossing spans the Detroit River

The Gordie Howe International Bridge connects Detroit, Michigan, to Windsor, Ontario, and it’s the first new crossing between the two cities in nearly a century.

The last one, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, opened back in 1930.

This cable-stayed bridge stretches about 1.5 miles, and its main span of 2,800 feet makes it the longest of its kind in North America. As of early March 2026, major construction is done and crews are testing the bridge.

No opening date has been set.

A hockey legend inspired the name

The bridge honors Gordie Howe, a Canadian hockey player who spent 25 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. Many consider him one of the greatest to ever play the game.

Howe died in 2016, two years before construction started.

The bridge’s two towers rise about 722 feet and were designed to look like hockey sticks mid-slapshot. Then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the naming at a 2015 event.

Walkers and cyclists can cross for free

Here’s something unusual: the bridge includes a path just for people on foot and on bikes, separated from cars by a barrier. Vehicles will pay a toll, but the path is free.

It will be the first time people can legally walk across the Detroit River outside of special events. Only a handful of other U.S.-Canada crossings allow pedestrians, including the Peace Bridge and Rainbow Bridge.

The Ambassador Bridge once had a sidewalk, but officials closed it after 9/11.

The path links major trail networks

On the American side, the path connects to the Iron Belle Trail and the Great Lakes Way. In Canada, it links up with the Trans Canada Trail.

Windsor opened a new Broadway Street path and Malden Park Trailhead in 2025 to meet the bridge. Pedestrians and cyclists will go through their own port of entry, separate from vehicles.

But don’t leave your passport behind. Anyone crossing on foot or by bike still needs a passport or enhanced license.

Six lanes connect two major highways

The bridge carries six lanes of traffic, three in each direction, and plugs straight into Interstate 75 in Michigan and Highway 401 in Ontario. That’s a big deal.

For the first time, drivers get uninterrupted highway-to-highway flow in this corridor. The Ambassador Bridge, by contrast, dumps traffic onto city streets on the Canadian side, causing backups.

Michigan also rebuilt 1.8 miles of I-75 with new ramps and pedestrian bridges to handle the added traffic.

This corridor carries a quarter of US-Canada trade

The Detroit-Windsor crossing is the busiest commercial border link between the U.S. and Canada.

About 25% of all trade by value between the two countries passes through here, with more than 2 million commercial truck crossings every year.

U.S.-Canada automotive trade alone has grown from about $32 billion in 1995 to nearly $51 billion in 2023. An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Canadian workers commute to Detroit daily.

Until now, all of that traffic relied on the Ambassador Bridge or the tunnel, both nearly a century old.

Canada covered the entire $5 billion cost

The Canadian federal government paid for the whole project, which cost roughly $5 billion. Canada plans to make that money back through tolls.

The bridge is jointly owned by Canada and the state of Michigan, a deal former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, negotiated. Construction started in 2018 and the Bridging North America consortium carried it out.

Both American and Canadian workers and steel went into building it.

COVID and supply issues pushed the timeline back

The bridge was supposed to open in late 2024. The COVID-19 pandemic threw that off, with cross-border work limits and material shortages slowing things down. In January 2024, officials pushed the target to fall 2025.

Then in October 2025, they confirmed another delay to early 2026, saying crews still needed to finish and hand over the ports of entry.

Workers connected the bridge deck in June 2024, a moment marked by a handshake between a Canadian and American steelworker. By late 2025, construction sat at about 98% complete.

Trump threatened to block the opening

On Feb. 8, 2026, President Trump posted on social media that he would not let the bridge open. He pointed to trade disputes with Canada, including Canadian tariffs on U.S. dairy and Canada’s trade talks with China.

Trump suggested the U.S. should own at least half of the bridge, though Michigan already co-owns it with Canada. That marked a shift.

In his first term in 2017, Trump had endorsed the bridge, calling it a vital economic link. The bridge authority said the project remains on track.

Canada responded and a key federal rule took effect

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with Trump the day after the threat.

Carney pointed out the bridge’s joint ownership and the fact that workers and steel from both countries built it.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a Federal Register rule in late January 2026 that officially designated the bridge as a port of entry.

That rule took effect on March 2, 2026, one of the final steps needed before opening. As of March 2026, no federal action has formally blocked the bridge.

Ambassador Bridge owners fought the project for years

The Moroun family has owned the Ambassador Bridge since 1979, and they opposed the Gordie Howe Bridge for years through lawsuits and funded campaigns.

The Ambassador Bridge still handles most commercial truck traffic in the corridor. Reports say the bridge owner met with a Trump cabinet member hours before the February 2026 threat.

Multiple news outlets reported the owner gave $1 million to a Trump-aligned political committee in January 2026. Democratic lawmakers launched an investigation into the circumstances around Trump’s threat.

No one knows when the bridge will open

The bridge is now in its testing phase, which covers traffic management, toll systems, border inspections, and communications networks.

An independent specialist is overseeing the process, and operating staff still need training on all systems before the bridge can open.

Michigan officials from both parties have urged the federal government to let it open. Democratic House members introduced a bill to prevent federal interference with the opening.

The bridge authority has not announced a date.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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