WINDSOR, Canada — Motorists driving over the Gordie Howe International Bridge Monday were bored — but in a good way.

Gone was the rumble-strip bumpiness of the Ambassador Bridge, the death-defying swaying of the Mackinac Bridge, the phalanx of traffic lights that await other crossings.

On its opening day, the Gordie Howe bridge performed its appointed duty of transporting travelers from Point A to Point B with a little fanfare but just a little fuss, drivers said.

The trip offered three minutes of rare tranquility between two bickering countries.

“It purred like a kitten,” said Dan Lemay of Tecumseh, Ontario, a Windsor bedroom community.

Lemay, 69, was referring to the 1929 Ford coupe he drove across the bridge but said he could have been talking about the span as well. That was the same year the Ambassador Bridge opened.

“It was very smooth,” he said about the new span, which some Canadians are referring to as the Gordie. “It was very easy access. That’s the thing, right over and right back. That means a lot.”

For the first time in its history, Detroit offered a choice between bridges that cross the Detroit River. The 97-year reign of the Ambassador Bridge was over.

The Howe bridge’s cables form a triangle that looks like a sail, a translucent one due to their thinness. From a distance, the span looks like a ghost ship.

The sleekness of the bridge contrasts with the bulky Ambassador, which is two miles upriver.

More: Gordie Howe International Bridge welcomes first vehicles from Michigan

The delicacy of the Howe bridge disappeared as drivers moved closer. Its cables hung from two hulking concrete towers, which rival the Renaissance Center in height.

The Y-shaped pylons, which rose from both banks of the river, looked like giant wishbones.

“It was very pleasing, very pretty. The cables are cool,” said Lisa Marentette of Windsor. “I think it’s a great thing.”

Marentette, who visits Detroit twice a month, normally uses the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. She said she doesn’t like the way the Ambassador Bridge dumps trucks into downtown Windsor.

A new Detroit River bridge crossing experience

The bridge’s maiden voyage offered motorists a sweeping view of the Detroit and Windsor skylines.

They rose high above two countries fighting over tariffs and other issues but, sadly, quickly returned to earth.

Smoother was the ride. Drivers didn’t experience the rhythmic thumping caused by most bridges’ expansion joints. The span smoothed over the gaps with sliding steel joints and heavy rubber padding.

Travelers also didn’t contend with crosswinds that bedevil other spans. The gusts were blocked by steel barriers along the roadway.

The ride was as quiet as a church mouse, even if said mouse was 138 feet in the air.

Wendy Johnson of Grand Haven said it was just the opposite of crossing the Ambassador.

“I was scared to death,” she said about the last time she was on the older span. “I thought I was on a trampoline.”

Johnson said she liked the new bridge’s six lanes (three in each direction), which beat the Ambassador’s four lanes (which was down to three lanes last week for bridge repairs). The Gordie Howe span is the only one with a shoulder that bridge officials say can be used for emergency vehicles.

Windsor neighborhood embraces new visitors

Detroit’s newest bridge gave drivers a present when they exited Monday — unencumbered passage to their destination.

Unlike users of the Ambassador, they weren’t required to visit downtown Detroit or Windsor, which, while fine cities, weren’t necessarily on their itineraries.

Howe bridge travelers who entered Canada didn’t see a single traffic light as they joined Highway 401 in Windsor.

“I don’t think we ever crossed in less than 20 minutes,” said Mike Himmel of Shelby Township.

Himmel, 64, said the Ambassador was a slower crossing because of all the traffic stops on both sides of the border.

If drivers wanted to stop in Windsor, they would have found a city eager to greet them.

Despite anger over 50% tariffs imposed by the U.S. last week, the Windsor neighborhood of Sandwich couldn’t wait for the bridge to open. Every vacant storefront along its commercial strip has been filled with cafes, bakeries and boutiques.

The sandwich-selling shops on Sandwich Street said the real payoff will come when the Howe bridge is opened to pedestrians next week. It will be the first time someone can walk from Detroit to Windsor.

While the eateries are waiting on two-legged visitors, it won’t be turning away four-wheeled ones, either.

“I love it. The whole area will change because of the bridge,” said Mike Mirza, co-owner of a development company, Sawaya Mirza Development.

His company is helping renovate a string of businesses along Sandwich Street, and upscale homes in LaSalle, a community downriver from Windsor. The firm began scooping up properties years ago in anticipation of the bridge opening, Mirza said.

Employees at the Rock Bottom Bar & Grill, along with other restaurants, said they noticed an uptick in business Monday from people crossing the new bridge.

A different landscape awaits in Detroit

Michiganians returning home on the Gordie Howe bridge weren’t treated to a quaint neighborhood hoping for a renaissance.

Instead, they were greeted with a heavy dose of American manufacturing. Smokestacks, blast furnaces and steel mills littered the landscape. (Think New Jersey without the Pine Barrens.)

Exhibit A was the massive ink spot known as Zug Island. The industrial site, which processes coal to coke, didn’t dress up for Canadian visitors, wearing its usual soot suit. Its steel and pipes were covered with grime.

The bridge’s publicity photos normally end just before reaching the isle.

“My husband said don’t roll the windows down. The pollution is so bad,” said Karrie Foesenek of Windsor. “And you sometimes can smell it.”

While a neighborhood on one side of the Gordie Howe bridge is dreaming about the future, another is ruing the past.

Delray in southwest Detroit lost businesses and blocks of homes to construction of the bridge. With the exodus of residents, some parts have returned to wilderness.

Detroiter Azalia Boston, a resident of Delray, said the bridge tower looming over the neighborhood is a 722-foot reminder of what happened to residents. So will be the daily buzzing of traffic now that the span is open.

“It’s a lot of mess,” she said. “If I had the money, I would move, but I’m stuck here.”

Such negative thoughts, however, were in the minority Monday.

More common were comments by folks like Damien Kyle, a Windsor-area driver trainer who drove the second truck to ever cross the bridge.

“It was breathtaking,” said Kyle, who works for Onfreight Logistics trucking firm. “It just flows much better. It doesn’t get better than that.”

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(Staff Writer Summer Ballentine contributed.)

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