Detroit fast facts

• From 1805 to 1847, Detroit was the capital of Michigan.
• Detroit built the nation’s first urban freeway, the Davison, in 1942.
• Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County.
• Detroit is the potato chip capital of the world, based on consumption.
• Detroit was the first city to pave a concrete road.
• Nicknames: the Motor City and Motown.
• Detroit has the most registered bowlers in the U.S.
• The city name comes from the Detroit River (French: le détroit du Lac Érié), meaning the strait of Lake Erie.
• Detroit was the first city in the nation to assign individual telephone numbers in 1879.
• The city population dropped from its peak in 1950 with a population of 1,849,568 to 910,920 in 2009.
• Detroit supplied 75 percent of liquor during Prohibition.