The Motor City in its heyday?

Here, workers leave the Ford Motor factory in Detroit circa 1930. In the 1950s, Detroit had one of the highest per capita incomes in the country. Today, the city has one of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S.

President, CEO and Chairman of Chrysler Corporation, Lee Iacocca, waves as he sits on the hood of a Plymouth Reliant, also known as a "K-car," in August 1980 in Detroit.

Detroit isn't only famous for its car production. In July 1942, Detroit's factories were busy producing General Grant Tanks which were used by U.S. forces in the Middle East. Here is a shot of the 28-ton tanks being made in the Chrysler Corporation’s tank arsenal in Detroit.

Workers roll a shiny Mercury Cyclone concept car at Detroit's North American International Auto Show in January 1990. Detroit has held an auto show since 1907.

Detroit becomes a part of history as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, accepts the Republican nomination for presidency in Detroit in July 1980. The Republican National Convention was held at the Joe Louis Arena, located in downtown Detroit.

Detroit's unemployment rate is at sixteen percent, which is much larger than the nation's as a whole. Here, Chrysler Corp Jefferson workers leave the Detroit assembly plant at the end of a shift in April 1977.

Men and women check out the 59th Detroit Auto Show at the Cobo Center in Detroit in January 1975. Though the city has filed for bankruptcy, Detroit's 2014 North American International Auto Show is scheduled to go off as planned in January.

The National Auto Show is held at the Cobo Hall in Detroit in October 1960. The Cobo Center, located along Jefferson and Washington avenues in downtown Detroit, was named after the city's mayor, Albert E. Cobo, who held office from 1950-1957.

In 1950, Detroit boasted 1.84 million people, but it has declined to just 714,000 spread over some 140 square miles. Here, the final assembly line of a Detroit Plymouth plant in August 1954 is so large, it runs about half a mile indoors.

Though Detroit once had a booming economy thanks to the auto industry, the city still had its fair share of growing problems. Here, a mob of people turn over a car during a race riot between whites and blacks in June 1943.

Detroit was once a place of hard working middle class Americans who flocked to the Motor City to work in its factories. Here, a female worker uses a 1,200-pound drill press at the General Motors Ternstedt Plant in Detroit in February 1942.

Unemployed members of the United Auto Workers fill Cadillac Square in Detroit to protest against their unemployment and plea for relief measures in February 1938. A crowd of 80,000 to 100,000 gathered.

Detroit, once among America's most powerful cities, has gone through the nation's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy. While the Motor City was the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy on July 18, 2013, the metropolis wasn't always in a state of decline. Check out amazing black and white photos of Detroit back in its heyday ... Henry Ford (r.), the developer and manufacturer of the first affordable American automobile, checks out his first car in December 1936. The car was built and assembled in this Detroit brick barn in 1892.

The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899 in Detroit, Michigan. Once a booming auto industry, the auto companies in Detroit began decentralizing in the 1950s, in part to produce products closer to regional markets, and in part to find cheaper labor (many of those jobs eventually went overseas). Here, Packard Motor Car Co. employees work in the company's plant in the 1920s.

A 37-year-old Henry Ford sits inside his new T Ford model in front of his Detroit car plant in 1900. By 1918, half of all cars in the U.S. were the Ford Model T's.