The Gordie Howe Bridge opened on Monday - it is a mighty big structure when I look at the pictures. It has 16 toll lanes and 60 Canada and U.S. inspection lanes for commercial land passenger vehicles. It makes me wonder how many vehicles will be on the bridge at a given time. The hourly volume is expected to be around 400 commercial vehicles per hour, plus passenger vehicle traffic. In its first 12 hours it recorded 7,500 vehicles. One retrieval says that 12,000 cars and 8,000 trucks travelled on it 2 days ago. Of course, after its opening, the news will drop off suddenly and move on to other things.
The Bridge has its own website with amenities and features, live camera feeds coming soon, and so on. The multi-use path opens on August 5th so we can expect some news then. It will be open in the winter - I can't imagine what the wind will be like then. Maybe some photos of people being pinned to the barrier unable to move forwards or backwards. They might get "iced in."
Not so far away is the Pickering Bridge. It is the longest enclosed people crossing in the world. It is the GO Station bridge is 250 metres long and spans 14 lanes of Highway 401, six rail tracks and a two-lane municipal roadway. Doesn't that sound like a traffic jam by itself.
I wonder if Windsor might join the ten incredible bridge walks in the world - things like Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, Yokohama Bay Bridge, N.Y.'s Brooklyn Bridge, the Tower Bridge in London. These all have incredible views compared to Windsor-Detroit.
I found a cartoon for this one. It is by Graeme MacKay - mackaycartoons.
Here's a winter view of the Toronto Botanical Gardens bridge over Wilket Creek. Doesn't winter look so scenic and pretty when it is a picture and not the view out the window.
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