Media post: This is How the Motor City of Detroit was Born
What people associate with “The Motor City” would have been quite different if there had been a different turn of events, a shift in the boardroom, or a few more sales at an automaker that was once promising but is now long gone.
How Detroit Became The Motor City of the US
Through the greatest economic peaks and the lowest financial troughs, Detroit has continued to be identified with the United States auto industry. As a result, Motown’s success has mostly fluctuated in tandem with the Big Three automakers: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.
But at the start of the 20th century, it was unclear whether the rapidly expanding automobile industry in the country would finally find a permanent home. Several towns could lay claim to being at the forefront of the auto industry back in the day when vehicles were still essentially hefty mechanical carriages pulled by ponies.
Cleveland was the home of early titans like Winton and the White Motor Company. Indianapolis’s résumé read like nothing less of the illustrious triad of Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg. Originating from Connecticut and New Jersey, Locomobile and Mercer Motor Cars produced some of the quickest and most customized vehicles of the time.
Concurrently, in Springfield, Massachusetts, about 1896, the Duryea Motor Wagon would be acknowledged as the first automobile marketed in the United States via serial manufacture. Up until then, all American automobiles were custom-built, with little to no design continuity across models. That year, just thirteen Duryea motorcars found happy homes.
Steam power, gasoline, and electric automobiles were all in fairly equal competition with one another around the turn of the century, in 1900, according to Bill Rothermel, secretary of the board of directors of The Elegance at Hershey.
After Detroit, Cleveland was most likely the second runner-up at the time. Cleveland was home to a large number of electric vehicle producers. When the gasoline vehicle took over as the most common kind, most of the manufacturers were based in Detroit.
When asked what contributed to the dominance of gas-powered vehicles, Rothermel’s response is ruthlessly straightforward: “Standard Oil.” He claims that the oil tycoon had a key role in developing the infrastructure required to make gasoline-powered vehicles feasible. When there were no designated gas stations, your only options for getting a refill when you ran out of petrol were the neighborhood pharmacy and maybe a hardware shop.
Gas-Powered Automobiles
The severe practicality issues faced by competitors also aided gas-powered automobiles. Because of their intricate mechanical designs, bubbling boilers, and, most importantly, a time-consuming starting procedure that often took 20 minutes or more to complete, Rothermel refers to the early steam-powered automobiles as “time bombs.”
Even while they were unquestionably quieter and cleaner than gas or steam engines, electric vehicles had the same short driving range and drawn-out charging problems as contemporary EVs.
Transport curator at The Henry Ford Museum Matthew Anderson says that time and logistics were equally important in Detroit’s ascent. Situated midway between Kentucky’s coal deposits and Minnesota and Wisconsin’s iron ore reserves, Detroit was also home to a sizable railroad network and the Great Lakes transit network.
According to Anderson, Detroit’s central American position combined with the city’s pre-existing industrial assets helped establish the city as a global leader in the automotive industry.
Many pieces of equipment were being produced here, according to Anderson. Stoves were among the largest enterprises in Detroit, along with tobacco. Additionally, one-third of the population was foreign-born by 1900.
A lot has changed in Detroit since then. It is no longer the capital of the auto industry, and in general, cars are almost not made here compared to the past. After the decline of the automobile industry, the city started to develop in different areas like tourism, which is attributed to factors like the rise in casino gambling. For example, the MotorCity casino hotel in Detroit took the name of the former auto capital in honor of the memory of the automobile capital of the U.S.
