The University of Oklahoma's Institute for Quality Communities looks at Detroit from above in 1951 vs. Detroit in 2010.
Over that 60 year span, a lot changed.
The group put the images together in a slider so you can compare the two time periods. You can find them here.
When you slide the image of Detroit, you can see how small city blocks with hundreds of small lots and houses were replaced with highways and large structures like the MGM Grand, the Motor City Casino, Comerica Park, and Ford Field.
You can also see the beginning of the Lodge Freeway in Detroit in the 1951 image.
Here's an animated gif showing the two overlaid images:
The group has complied before and after looks for several cities in the Midwest and around the country.
Of Detroit, Shane Hampton writes:
Much of Detroit is unrecognizable between the 1951 and 2010 aerial views. The iconic radial corridors extending from Campus Martius -- Woodward, Gratiot, and Michigan, are among the few things that have stayed the same. In 1951, you can see vast swaths of the city beginning to be cleared for highway spurs and large-scale redevelopments. By 2010, downtown is encircled by highways. A noticeable positive change is the transformation of a confusing intersection at the heart of Detroit into Campus Martius Park, which opened in 2004.
H/T Adam Allington
