By
correction

An earlier version of this article misstated the decade in which Detroit became the nation’s fourth-largest city. It achieved that distinction in the 1940s, not the 1950s. Detroit was the nation’s fifth-largest city when its population peaked in the 1950s. This version has been corrected.

Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history Thursday, marking a new low in a long decline that has left the U.S. automaking capital bleeding residents and revenue while rendering city services a mess.

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The city, which was the nation’s fourth-largest in the 1940s, with nearly 2 million inhabitants, has seen its population plummet to 700,000 as residents fled rising crime and deteriorating basic services, taking their tax dollars with them.

Michael A. Fletcher is a senior writer for ESPN.
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