Blue Water Bridge

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Blue Water Bridge
Blue Water Bridge, newer bridge in foreground
Carries	6 lanes of I-69/I-94 and Highway 402 (westbound span, 3 lanes; eastbound span, 3 lanes)
Crosses	St. Clair River
Locale	Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
Maintained by	MDOT and Blue Water Bridge Authority
Design	Cantilever truss (westbound) Continuous tied arch (eastbound)
Longest span	871 feet (265 m) (westbound) 922 feet (281 m) (eastbound)
Total length	6,178 feet (1,883 m) (westbound) 6,109 feet (1,862 m) (eastbound)
Width	38 feet (12 m) (westbound) 51 feet (16 m) (eastbound)
Height	210 feet (64 m) (westbound) 233 feet (71 m) (eastbound)
Clearance below	152 feet (46 m) (westbound) 155 feet (47 m) (eastbound)
AADT	14,000
Opening date	October 10, 1938 (westbound) July 22, 1997 (eastbound)
Toll	Cars: USD$2.25 (westbound) or CAD$2.50 (westbound) USD$1.75 (eastbound) or CAD$2.00 (eastbound)
Maps and aerial photos Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps Topographic map from TopoZone Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

The Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span bridge that spans the St. Clair River between Port Huron, Michigan and Point Edward, Ontario (near Sarnia, Ontario). The Blue Water Bridge connects with Highway 402 in Ontario and with both Interstate 69 and Interstate 94 in Michigan. The original span is a cantilever truss bridge and the second span is a continuous tied arch bridge.

The first bridge was opened to traffic on October 10, 1938. The lead engineer was Ralph Modjeski. This bridge originally had two lanes for vehicles as well as sidewalks, which were removed in 1997 to make room for a third lane for vehicles. A second three-lane bridge, just south of the first bridge, opened on July 22, 1997. The first bridge was immediately closed afterwards for renovation and reopened in 1999.

The first bridge is a cantilever truss with a total length of 6,178 feet (1,883 m). The main span is 871 feet (265 m). The second bridge is a continuous tied arch with a total length of 6,109 feet (1,862 m). The main span is 922 feet (281 m). During the debate over design (which was a combined effort between Modjeski & Masters - U.S Engineers and Buckland & Taylor Ltd. - Canadian Engineers), public opinion had mostly favoured a duplicate of the first bridge, while a cable-stayed design came in second. The Blue Water Bridge Authority had rejected both designs, due to the duplicate creating a false sense of history, while the cable-stayed option was feared to overshadow the existing bridge. The continuous-tied arch design was chosen for two reasons. One was that it blends in with the original span yet stands out on its own and the other is lower maintenance costs because fewer spans are involved.

Together, the bridges are one of the busiest transportation arteries between the United States and Canada. They also provide one of the four shortest routes of land travel between the eastern seaboard of the United States, and the central United States. The Blue Water Bridges are jointly owned and maintained by Canada and the United States. The Blue Water Bridge Authority is in charge of the Canadian side, and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is in charge of the U.S. side. The bridges have a toll, which is used to pay for bridge maintenance and operations.

The Blue Water Bridge was featured in the 2000 Kim Basinger movie Bless the Child, where it represented a New York City bridge. It is also featured in the 1994 Danny Devito movie Renaissance Man directed by Penny Marshall.