There\u2019s a new way to get to Canada, and it won\u2019t cost you any gas or money \u2014 just a few calories.<\/p>\n
The Gordie Howe International Bridge\u2019s multi-use path opened Wednesday morning to pedestrians and cyclists, giving people the chance to walk or bike across the international span for the first time.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people lined up on the Detroit side of the border, hoping to be among the first to make the crossing.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, Amanda Ray started the Gordie Howe International Bike Club Facebook group to share information about the multi-use path and build a community of cyclists on both sides of the border. <\/p>\n
The group has since grown to more than 3,500 members.<\/p>\n
I joined Ray and other members of the group Wednesday morning for the inaugural crossing.<\/p>\n
We met at Historic Fort Wayne and took the short ride to the bridge entrance on Jefferson Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe motto of today is just roll with it,\u201d Ray said.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly what we did.<\/p>\n
By late morning, the bridge reached capacity on the U.S. side, and officials temporarily paused additional pedestrians and cyclists from entering until noon.<\/p>\n
While waiting in line, I met Marcell Glover, who planned to run across the bridge with a friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us to be able to connect, walk, cycle and run this \u2014 it\u2019s a great opportunity, so I had to come out here,\u201d Glover said.<\/p>\n
Karen Dunnam traveled from Grand Rapids for opening day, spending the night in Windsor so she could be among the first people to cross from Canada into the United States.<\/p>\n
I met her after she cleared customs on the U.S. side and asked if the wait was worth it.<\/p>\n
Dunnam said it was.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really fun. People were stopping to take photos. There are some great views,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
We made it through the entrance to the bridge around noon and began the climb up.<\/p>\n
Riding across the bridge, I was in awe of the beauty, and I thought of the men and women who worked on it for years.<\/p>\n
The path is a single lane that accommodates two-way pedestrian and cyclist traffic. It\u2019s 1.5 miles long with a 5% grade. Total travel distance between the two border inspection booths is 1.8 miles one way.<\/p>\n
Expect a 20-minute crossing by bike or 45 minutes on foot, one way, not including border processing time. The same travel documents required for a vehicle crossing apply here.<\/p>\n
The multi-use path is free.<\/p>\n
It was an amazing experience \u2014 one I plan to repeat with my family.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new way to get to Canada, and it won\u2019t cost you any gas or money \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,10560,23725,24152],"class_list":["post-157438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-detroit","tag-gordie-howe-international-bridge","tag-wayne-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}