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Essay on Detroit Windsor Tunnel
The Detroit Windsor-Tunnel opened in 1930 and was the first underwater tunnel to connect two countries. It was also the first long vehicular tunnel constructed by the sunken tube method anywhere in the world. Travelers previously made the one-mile trip between Detroit and Windsor via ferry. Traffic lines and tie-ups were common on either side of the Detroit River in the mid-1920s as the number of people seeking passage increased steadily after the introduction of the automobile. Tunnel construction techniques included immersed tube, shield-driven and cut-and-cover. For the immersed tube segment, nine steel tubes, each weighing about 800,000 pounds make up the tunnel under the river.
Built on dry land, they were launched like ships, floated into position, and sunk in a trench dredged in the bottom of the river. The steel tubes were welded in place and the overall error in alignment was less than one inch. The total length of the Tunnel from street grade to street grade is 5,845 feet. A 22-foot-roadway with 13.5 feet of headroom is provided throughout the tunnel, which lies 75 feet under the Detroit River’s surface. About 1,000 vehicles per hour in each direction use the tunnel.Prior to its construction and that of the Ambassador Bridge one year earlier, cars and trucks crossed the Detroit River on car ferries.
Early in the 19th Century Detroiters expressed the need for both a tunnel and bridge to speed rail transportation across the river but well-organized opposition by marine shipping interests blocked any such project.Finally in 1871, ground was broken on a rail tunnel project near the foot of Detroit's St. Antoine Street. The railroad tunnel had a 15-foot bore, and at 135 feet under the river, workmen struck a pocket of sulphurous gas which made them deathly ill.......
