The Michigan Central and the Great Western railroads in addition to others operated on either side of the border connecting Chicago with the Atlantic Seaboard.

The ferries lacked the capacity to handle the shipping needs of the railroads, and there were often 700–1,000 freight cars waiting to cross the river, with numerous passengers delayed in transit.

The net effect of these delays increased commodity prices in the country, and both merchants and farmers wanted a solution from the railroads.

This tunnel benefited the Michigan Central and Great Western railroads, but the Canada Southern Railway and other lines still preferred a bridge over the river.

After they created a bridge company, the project got into trouble when a Toronto financier hired to sell its securities instead embezzled the money and ran off, before ultimately committing suicide in a prison cell after conviction for murdering a drugstore clerk.

Much later Berkshire Hathaway acquired a quarter of the shares before selling to another investor in the company, local trucking entrepreneur Manuel Moroun.

After it opened, high divers considered it as a venue for a record; but after measurements of the height and currents were taken into account, they were dissuaded and abandoned the attempt.

[17] On November 14, 2000, a scaffold on the bridge collapsed, sending three men into the Detroit River and leaving four workers dangling from safety harnesses.

[19] In July 2023, Spencer Baker, another construction worker also fell off from the scaffolding into the river; he was promptly rescued with undisclosed injuries.

[30] The bridge is made up of 21,000 short tons (19,000 tonnes) of steel, and the roadway rises as high as 152 feet (46 m) above the Detroit River.

He sued the governments of Canada and Michigan to stop its construction, and released a proposal to build a second span of the Ambassador Bridge (which he would own) instead.

A twin span adjacent to the Ambassador Bridge, by itself, does not address Canadian concerns about traffic on Huron Church Road in Windsor.

[47] Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra noted that conversations between the federal government, the City of Windsor and the bridge company were "ongoing".

[citation needed] At one point, Matty Moroun and his chief deputy at the Detroit International Bridge Co, Dan Stamper, were jailed for non-compliance with orders to complete the on-ramps.

[48] After years of legal battles, activism by local people against neighborhood truck traffic, and stalling by Matty Moroun, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) took over the I-75/I-96 on-ramp project and opened the ramps in September 2012 after a six-month construction period.

[11] Critics of the duty-free fuel operation objected that sixty cents from each U.S. gallon went not to paving Michigan's underfunded highways but instead directly to Matty Moroun.

[53] In 2015, Windsor city officials criticized the decaying appearance of the bridge and called attention to the hazard posed by crumbling concrete from its superstructure.

In response, Matt Moroun accused the city of attempting to thwart the company's efforts to rebuild or repair the structure because the Canadian government is supporting plans for a new bridge across the Detroit River downriver.