Collections : [University of Michigan Special Collections Research Center]

The Ambassador Bridge spans the Detroit River from Detroit, Michigan to Windsor, Ontario (Canada). It was constructed from 1927-1929. The collection is from the papers of Mr. Howard A. Schirmer, an engineer who worked on the construction of the Ambassador Bridge. It contains materials related to designing and executing the construction of the Ambassador Bridge, the majority being correspondence and reports, and a selection of books and newspapers published just after the construction of the bridge.

The papers are divided into two series: Construction and Publications.

Construction contains materials related to designing and executing the construction of the Ambassador Bridge, the majority being correspondence and reports.

The correspondence dates from July 1928 to July 1929. The main correspondents are Robert MacMinn, Engineer of Construction; R.G. Cone, Resident Engineer; Howard Schirmer and other McClintic-Marshall employees. The correspondence discusses bids for contracts and various aspects of the construction, mostly focused on the terminals. Topics include the telephone system, installing clocks, furniture, cash registers and automatic car counters. There are a few blueprints, drawings, and lists of expenditures intermixed with the correspondence.

The reports are specification reports detailing how aspects of the construction are to be conducted. The reports indicate the types of materials and the processes to be used. The reports include specifications for masonry, the metal superstructure, pavements, and furniture, equipment and steel lockers for the U.S. terminal. There is also a report entitled Contract Plans and General Specifications detailing the responsibilities of the McClintic-Marshall company for the design and construction of the Ambassador Bridge.

Publications contains books and newspapers published just after the construction of the Ambassador Bridge. The books describe the history and process of constructing the bridge with varying degrees of technical detail. Detroit River Bridge was written for engineers and includes 69 plates of design drawings for the bridge. Detroit-Windsor Bridge also provides a technical description of the construction of the bridge and Detroit International Bridge provides a more general history of the construction. The newspapers were published when the Ambassador Bridge was dedicated. There is an article from the Detroit News and a section on the bridge from the Detroit Free Press.