"Frequently called the most cosmopolitan city of the Midwest, Detroit today stands at the threshhold of a bright new future," begins this promotional film, made in 1965 in an unsuccessful push to host the Olympics. This excerpt shows the urban construction in progress in the 1960s.
Sommer Mathis, editor of The Atlantic's new Cities website, looks at the decline, and unexpected growth, of the city.
To see this film in its entirety, visit the Prelinger Archive.
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Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg is the former executive producer and general manager of Atlantic Studios at The Atlantic.