Though it is common for major metropolitan areas to have divisions by race, as exhibited by this article by Al Jazeera, few cities show such an obvious border as Detroit does. It serves as a racial divide between the city of Detroit and its suburbs. In addition to serving as the defining line for surveying, 8 Mile has an immense cultural significance as well. The streets are the major spokes of Detroit's wheel system and their hub is Campus Martius Park. They were used for trade and travel and still stand today, just with different names than they once had: Jefferson, Gratiot, Woodward, Grand River, Michigan Avenue, and Fort Street. These trails would take them down to Toledo, up to Port Huron, off to Grand Rapids, or up towards Pontiac. "They were here long before anyone else, and they had established trails." "The spoke-wheel plan we can attribute to the Native Americans," Stone explained. But according to Joel Stone, senior curator at the Detroit Historical Society, that's a common misconception. The spoke-wheel layout of Detroit's streets is often attributed to Judge Augustus Woodward. It began with the Native Americans and the trails that crisscrossed where some of Detroit's roads stand today. ![]() ![]() The answer is deeply rooted in Detroit's history, before the French and the British.
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