10 Facts About Detroit

Posted by Jill Harness in Everything Else, Travel & Places on July 9, 2009 at 3:21 pm


For many people, even the word “Detroit” brings to mind images of crime, cars and poverty. But no city can really be that black and white. The things you don’t know about Detroit might just entertain you. Elovethiscity has a fun collection of 10 Detroit Facts You Should Know. For example, did you know the city hosts the only floating post office in America (shown above):

The J. W. Westcott II docks just South of The Ambassador Bridge along the western shore of the Detroit River. She is America’s only floating ZIP Code [48222]. Delivering over 100 years of “mail-by-the-pail”, the J.W. Westcott Company was originally formed in 1874 by Captain J.W. Westcott to inform passing vessels of changes in orders.

Today the 45-foot vessel’s duties include U.S. mail delivery; freight delivery, storage, forwarding; message service; passenger service to and from vessels and pilot boat services for the Port of Detroit. The Westcott also sells nautical charts, postcards, books, and has been known to deliver the occasional mid-river pizza.

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9 comments to "10 Facts About Detroit"

  1. RPB
    July 9th, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    I'm assuming you meant Detroit and not Detriot.

  2. gurnorg
    July 9th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    The article forgot to mention that VERNORS is also the Oldest Soda pop in the world. It was invented during the Civil War and was sold at Dr. Vernors shop ever since. The reason it doesn’t get much credit as the worlds oldest soda is due to A) it isn’t available a lot of places outside Michigan (though that is starting to change) and B) It was bottled and commercialized a little later than some other soda pops and for the first few years was only available at the one store.

  3. gurnorg
    July 9th, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    PS I was born there and knew everything on the list EXCEPT the salt mines. i realized that there were a lot of salt mines in the upper peninsula of Michigan but i didn't know about the ones in Detroit.

  4. Foreigner1
    July 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    I think this about that ship is quite interesting. I vaguely remembered something about this, had to look it up and found it on Wiki:

    "On October 23, 2001 the J.W. Westcott II, sank in the deep water under the Ambassador Bridge while caught in the wake of a much larger ship she was serving. The captain and one other crew member were killed and two others were rescued. The ship was later salvaged, refurbished and put back into service."

    Another neat factoid found on continuouswave dot com is: "A special feature of the Westcott is the clear plexiglass roof of the pilot house. The see-thru roof allows the helmsman to maintain visual contact with the deskhands on the freighter some 25 feet above him."

  5. atanguay
    July 9th, 2009 at 5:55 pm

    Yaaa! Go Detroit.

  6. Lloyd
    July 9th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    I've never been to Detroit, but the stereotype of it being nothing but a huge, abandoned ghetto is unfair. Thanks for posting a positive piece.

  7. ted
    July 9th, 2009 at 8:43 pm

    What's a deskhand, Foreigner1?

  8. Justin O
    July 9th, 2009 at 9:17 pm

    I'm from Detroit.. Well just south, and the stereotype Lloyd talks about is actually quite true. I mean, there are so many little gems in Detroit that make it a beautiful place, and Detroit is a community that really pulls together.. But it is really, really ghetto and broke down. Though, it seems like it's slowly turning back into the amazing place it was 50 years ago.

  9. A
    July 9th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

    What about Faygo?


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