WINDSOR, June 10 -- The bridge was supposed to be a story about concrete and traffic. Instead it became a test of whether an American president could stop a Canadian project he did not pay for and does not own. This week the answer arrives in the form of an open road. The Gordie Howe International Bridge opens regardless of what Donald Trump wants.

The span, six lanes across the Detroit River connecting Windsor to Detroit, is set to open at the end of the week, with a ribbon-cutting on Friday and traffic flowing by Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Tuesday. It cost roughly 6.4 billion dollars and took seven years to build, financed by Canada and the state of Michigan rather than by the private owners who have long controlled the...