This bridge is far from a natural monopoly, as the border is considerably long. The justice system however, which allowed the bridge owner to maintain his unnatural monopoly, is publicly owned.
The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_River is a total of 24 miles long, and both sides have been populated since at least 11,000 years ago. Good luck.
> And also a few miles to the north
Tell me you don't live here without saying it. What's an added 3 hours of commute one way? No big deal. Employers will be pleased.
Reading [1] which talks of frequent delays, it sounds inconvenient. It isn't really "efficient for an international border" compared to the Schengen area in the EU, or India-Nepal, Russia-Belarus, UK-Ireland etc. At those, there are no checks at all; so no need to stop.
In short, yes.
City borders are often much smaller than city population areas. Population of the metropolitan areas on both sides of the Detroit River is over 5 million people.
If we had to decide who's worse, i give my vote (of being the worst) to the politicians.
People still commit all those crimes you say? Oh.