The city that invented Motown, mass-produced the automobile, and refused to disappear — where Berry Gordy built the sound of the 20th century in a two-storey house on West Grand Boulevard, Diego Rivera painted the most important industrial murals in America in the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the most dramatic urban comeback story in the United States plays out in real time in Corktown and Midtown
Detroit (640,000; metro 4.4 million) is Michigan's largest city and one of the most historically significant cities in the United States — simultaneously the birthplace of the American automobile industry (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler were all founded here), the birthplace of Motown Records (the music label that produced Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Temptations, and The Jackson 5), and the city that experienced the most dramatic single-city economic collapse in American history. From a peak population of 1.85 million in 1950 (fourth-largest US city), Detroi…
Detroit was founded as Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in 1701 by French explorer Antoine Cadillac — the name 'Detroit' is French for 'strait', referring to the Detroit River between the US and Canada. Henry Ford (born Dearborn, Michigan, 1863) invented the moving assembly line at Highland Park (1913) and introduced the Model T ($850 in 1908, $360 by 1916 due to assembly-line efficiencies) — transforming Detroit into the automobile capital of the world and creating the American middle class through the $5 workday (double the prevailing wage). Berry Gordy Jr. borrowed $800 from his family in 195…