Detroit — Purple Gang Tunnels

Detroit became the alcohol trafficking crossroads from 1920 thanks to its border with Canada, where alcohol remained legal. The Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center, built in 1977 on the former port site, stands where smuggling boats once transited. These seven interconnected towers of 1.2 million m² replace the clandestine warehouses where the Purple Gang stored Canadian alcohol before distribution to Chicago and New York.

The Guardian Building, completed in 1929 by Wirt C. Rowland, houses in its 38 floors the offices of lawyers defending bootleggers. Its 40,000 Pewabic pottery tiles conceal the safes where trafficking profits accumulated. At 400 meters from Campus Martius Park, this Art Deco skyscraper became Prohibition's financial headquarters, classified as National Historic Landmark in 1989.

The Detroit Riverwalk runs 8 km along shores where speedboats loaded with Canadian whisky docked nightly. This 5-meter-wide promenade, opened in phases since 2004, follows the former smugglers' path to Hart Plaza. The 33 public sculptures mark secret landing points, 200 meters from the underwater tunnel linking Detroit to Windsor since November 3, 1930.

The 624 Third Street site, former Little Harry's Speakeasy (1917-1933), hides in its basement tunnels dug toward the Detroit River. This early 20th-century building, frequented by the Purple Gang, underground connects the neighborhood's blind pigs to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The tunnel's 12.2-meter diameter allows passage of 2,400 vehicles per hour, partly transporting contraband alcohol.

Your route reveals how Detroit controlled 75% of American alcohol trafficking during Prohibition. From Campus Martius to Windsor tunnels, you followed traces of Abe Bernstein and the Purple Gang who transformed Michigan into organized crime's hub. These 1.5 km concentrate thirteen years of clandestine history, from 1920 to 1933, when the city lived to the rhythm of nocturnal convoys and shootouts between rival gangs.