Business & brands
Manuel Moroun
1927–2020 · businessman, owner of the Ambassador Bridge
Detroit-born son of Syrian Maronite immigrants who built a trucking empire and owned the Ambassador Bridge and, for years, the empty Michigan Central Station.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
aged 93- Also known as
- Matty Moroun
- Detroit years
- 1927–2020
- Field
- Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Moroun was born in Detroit in 1927 to Maronite Christian parents of Syrian origin; his family had crossed from Windsor after the Ambassador Bridge company bought and demolished his grandfather's house for the new bridge. He worked at his father's Detroit gas stations, graduated from University of Detroit Jesuit High School and studied at Notre Dame while commuting home to help with the business. From the family trucking firm he built CenTra and Central Transport, and in 1979 he bought the Ambassador Bridge, one of the few privately owned crossings between the United States and Canada. For decades he fought a second, public bridge, spending heavily on a 2012 ballot proposal and even briefly being jailed in 2012 over unbuilt freeway ramps. He also owned Michigan Central Station, which stood empty under his ownership until his family sold it to Ford in 2018.
Highlights
- Bought the Ambassador Bridge in 1979
- Built the CenTra and Central Transport trucking group
- Owned the vacant Michigan Central Station until 2018
- Fought the Gordie Howe International Bridge for years
- Briefly jailed in 2012 in the Gateway ramp dispute
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1979–2020
Ambassador Bridge
The 1929 suspension bridge between Detroit and Windsor, which Moroun bought in 1979; still owned by his family's Detroit International Bridge Company.
Related place · 1995–2018
Michigan Central Station
Corktown's monumental train station, closed to trains in 1988 and owned by Moroun's company until its 2018 sale to Ford, which restored it and reopened it in 2024.
Studied here · 1940s
University of Detroit Jesuit High School
Jesuit high school where Moroun graduated.