WSU street-geography movie, 1962

**Sandhouse** · August-02-17, 12:38 PM

Today the auto-gossip and racing-fan web site www.jalopnik.com posted a short movie made by the Wayne State University geography department on the history of Detroit's street pattern. The content will not be news to anyone with knowledge of the city's history, but the movie is illustrated with scenes of driving on Detroit's streets in what seems to be the summer of 1962. [[I'm pretty sure I spotted a `62 Chevy and lots of `61s.) It's fun to watch for views of the city's main streets as they looked then.

**drjeff** · August-02-17, 01:59 PM

That was enjoyable

**Jimaz** · August-02-17, 02:04 PM

Let's try a direct link:
This Vintage Educational Video Tells The Fascinating Story Of Detroit's Weird Roads.

**EastsideAl** · August-04-17, 06:24 PM

Interesting pronunciation of the word Gratiot.

The film actually presents [[eventually) a pretty succinct explanation of what makes Detroit's street patterns notably different from those of most other midwestern cities.

**Zacha341** · August-05-17, 09:28 AM

My father a smart, well read man pronounced Gratiot as GRA-shut all of his life!

**Ray1936** · August-05-17, 04:44 PM

Saw one weather caster on the Weather Channel give a severe storm warning for "Grat-eee-ott" county.

**Bigb23** · August-06-17, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by Ray1936

Saw one weather caster on the Weather Channel give a severe storm warning for "Grat-eee-ott" county.

Fun fact -

The longest place name in the United States [[45 letters) is Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, a lake in Webster, Massachusetts. It means "Englishmen at Manchaug at the Fishing Place at the Boundary" and is sometimes facetiously translated as "you fish your side of the water, I fish my side of the water, nobody fishes the middle".

How about we just skip swimming at that lake. The GPS entry sucks.

Let's go to Lake Placid instead.

Have at it Weather Channel!