DETROIT – Nearly everyone knows there are two major ways to get across the Detroit River into Ontario: The Detroit-Windsor tunnel, mainly for passenger cars, and the aging Ambassador Bridge, which now carries fully one-quarter of all trade between the United States and Canada.
True, there also will be the new Gordie Howe International Bridge, which may render the Ambassador obsolete. But it probably won’t open to the public till early 2025.
But until a few weeks ago, there was another crossing, which few people knew about but which was vitally important: The Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry, which took cargo that no one else could or should across the river border between the nations.
That included materials classified as hazardous, including batteries for electric cars, but also things like turbine blades for windmills and other cargo too large for any bridge.
And whenever weather or maintenance or some other problem temporarily closed the Ambassador, everyone from General Motors to the smallest exporter swamped the ferry, frantically offering to pay owner Gregg Ward “almost whatever I wanted” to transport their cargo across in time to meet a deadline.
Ward, now 61, was in his late twenties when he and his late father started the ferry service on Earth Day, 1990, with a leased barge and tugboat a couple miles south of downtown Detroit.
For many years, the ferry was profitable, at least enough for the Wards to make a decent middle-class living. But costs got higher and revenue didn’t keep pace. It was always suspected that hazardous materials were being transported via the Ambassador, but the authorities consistently looked the other way.
Gregg Ward asked everyone from the various governments he served to his clients for a subsidy. But while everyone said what a valuable service he provided, nobody helped.
So on Sept.29, with little fanfare and no media notice, the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry made its final run, and closed down. The next day, Ward, a class act if there was ever one, posted a note of thanks to everyone on LinkedIn, and closed the ferry, “For all those who have touched our lives personally and professionally, thank you for your business, kindness and friendship.”
But Paul LaMarre, the director of the Port of Monroe, was outraged that no one offered to help keep the ferry open. “This is a perfect example of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.’ Gregg Ward was always there when either businesses or government needed him, but when he needed help, nobody was there for him.”
LaMarre, who formerly was director of maritime affairs for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, said the ferry was a vastly underappreciated asset. “The truck ferry operated flawlessly through the entire period of its existence. Not a single accident or incident.
“What Gregg provided was a controlled environment with strong safety precautions. This is a guy who should be given the key to the city, and instead he’s been forced to sail off into the sunset.”
The Wards made a living, though a fairly modest one, from the truck ferry; both men lived in ordinary suburban houses in Dearborn. After a long illness, the elder Ward died last year. Apart from the truck ferry, Gregg Ward’s life has centered on caring for a severely autistic adult son who will never be able to work nor live on his own. His wife divorced him years ago and moved to Europe.
Operating the ferry itself was never easy; getting a skilled tugboat captain to come to Detroit was a challenge. Once the ferry was successful, the Moroun family, who own the Ambassador Bridge, tried to buy him out. When he wouldn’t sell, Ward told me the Morouns did everything they could to put roadblocks in his way.
Those in politics and government haven’t been helpful either. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is trying to get the rules changed to allow hazardous materials over the almost century-old Ambassador Bridge. Once, when Ward and LaMarre went to see Peter Navarro, director of trade and manufacturing policy in the Trump Administration about unfairness, the director (who since has been convicted of contempt of Congress) indicated he was mainly interested in what the Moroun family wanted.
Gregg Ward, a longtime critic of the Morouns, probably could have gotten more money had he sold his ferry to them, but instead he just sold the land on both side of the river to other businesses, who aren’t going to operate a ferry.
Now, there is no apparent way other than the Ambassador Bridge. But Paul LaMarre isn’t sure that even allowing hazmat over the Gordie Howe is a great idea.
“If there were to be an accident, the way the currents are there means there would be no way to keep it controlled.”
As for the large and heavy loads like wind tower segments, they will have to travel, in some cases hundreds of miles or more to get from one country to the next, adding cost.
Businesses on both sides of the border are finding out that, as Paul LaMarre said, you really don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
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