Everyone knows that there are a lot of cars in United State. When
talking about cars, we cannot ignore Detroit which is the largest car
center in USA. Detroit owes its one-time prosperity to the automobile
industry, especially to Henry Ford. It is the city that people pay
attention to.
Since its 1950s heyday when Detroit was home to more than 2 million
residents, the city has suffered some hard times. The city has been
considered a national symbol of urban decay, the center of the so-called
Rust Belt; its population has slipped to about one million.
Luckily, thanks to the car industry boom of the mid-1990s, which make
Detroit develop again. Detroit is now staging a steady comeback. It's
not a Chicago or even a Cleveland, but the Motor City is culturally
rich. Detroit's population is 80% black, making it a national center for
African American culture.
Detroit is situated in the flat plains of southeast Michigan, located
deliberately on the Detroit River immediately north of Windsor, Canada -
one of very few places where a Canadian city is south of its US
neighbor. Not surprisingly, Detroit serves as a major gateway to the
Great White North.
The downtown of Detroit is dominated by the Renaissance Center, and
seven huge circular glass towers along the Detroit River. The RenCen is
surrounded by revitalized historic neighborhoods such as Greektown, all
connected via an elevated train called the People Mover. Woodward Ave,
the city's lifeline, runs north and south and was the first paved
concrete highway in the country.
Lots of people know that Cadillac's come from Detroit. But what they
probably don't know is that Detroit came from a Cadillac. Enterprising
French trader and explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac stumbled upon
what is now Detroit in 1701, figuring it would make a good base from
which to send furs to Canada.
Detroit might have remained little more than a stomping ground for
trader types had it not been for an ambitious industrialist named Henry
Ford. Born on a farm in nearby Dearborn, Ford left for Detroit to
establish the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Within five years he was mass
producing cars and perfecting the assembly line. The assembly line
inspired another Detroit innovation known as the United Auto Workers
(UAW), who kicked off the industrial union movement from the 'Motor
City.' Driven by the automobile's success, Detroit was the first city to
have a paved concrete road, the first to install a traffic light and
the USA's first to have an urban freeway.
Said to have been in place as early as the colonial period, the height
of Underground Railroad activity was between 1830 and 1865. Detroit was a
major escape route because of its proximity to the Canadian border. The
new arrivals brought with them the beginnings of jazz and blues music.
From the late 1800s on, African-American musicians played an important
role in Detroit's entertainment scene, and the city was the first to
have an integrated musicians' union. Mississippi transplant John Lee
Hooker recorded his first blues hits here in the 1940s. Hooker and his
peers paved the way for Motown - the biggest American music phenomenon
of this century and African-American Detroit's ticket to the big
leagues.
If want to know more information about the Detroit, you can have a visit on this car city. Travelers can relax with no doubt.
Plan Your Trip
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