Overhead, gray steel cables sweep toward Canada, carrying the busiest trade crossing in North America. The Ambassador Bridge opened in November 1929, just weeks after the stock market crashed, its central span the longest suspension span in the world at the time. It links Detroit with Windsor, Ontario, the only place where Canada lies directly south of the United States, a quirk of the river's bend.
More than a quarter of all merchandise traded between the two countries by value crosses these towers, much of it auto parts shuttling between plants on both sides. The bridge anchors Mexicantown, the southwest neighborhood that grew as Mexican families came north for factory work in the early twentieth century and built a district of bakeries, taquerias, and murals. Notice the gray steel cables sweeping toward the Canadian shore, and the low rooflines below, where the smell of fresh tortillas drifts past the roar of border-bound trucks.