Portal:Michigan/Cities/6

Detroit (/dɪˈtrɔɪt/ dih-TROYT, locally also /ˈdiːtrɔɪt/ DEE-troyt) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the largest U.S. city on the Canadian border and the county seat of Wayne County. Detroit had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 census, making it the 26th-most populous city in the United States. The Metro Detroit area, home to 4.3 million people, is the second-largest in the Midwest after the Chicago metropolitan area and the 14th-largest in the United States. A significant cultural center, Detroit is known for its contributions to music, art, architecture and design, in addition to its historical automotive background.

In 1701, Royal French explorers Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (1758-1730), and Alphonse de Tonty (1659-1727), founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit. During the late 19th and early 20th century, it became an important industrial hub at the center of the Great Lakes region in the Midwestern United States. The city's population rose to be the fourth-largest in the nation by 1920, after New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia, with the expansion of the automotive industry in the early 20th century. One of its main features, the Detroit River, became the busiest commercial hub in the world—carrying over 65 million tons of shipping commerce each year. In the mid-20th century, Detroit entered a state of urban decay which has continued to the present, as a result of industrial restructuring, the loss of jobs in the auto industry, and rapid suburbanization. Since reaching a peak of 1.85 million at the 1950 census, Detroit's population has declined by more than 65 percent. In 2013, Detroit became the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy, but successfully exited in December 2014. (Full article...) (Full article...)