[2] In the 1860s, the Grand Trunk Railway built a chain ferry to take train cars carrying immigrants and cargo across the border.

The chain over the river posed problems, and at one point the ferry collided with a steamboat and drifted downstream some ways before being rescued.

Most immigrants who entered Port Huron in the 19th century continued their trip to the Midwest through a train depot where Thomas Edison sold newspapers as a child.

While products were inspected and taxed, there was no control on the flow of people, and in fact in February 1886 the Department of the Treasury ordered the Bureau of Customs to cease even local attempts to count the number of immigrants.

Border control is currently managed at tollbooths on either side of the Blue Water Bridge, while international ferry service has been discontinued.