The rise & fall of 'vehicle city'.

• Position: General Motors Co. in Flint, Michigan

A century ago, Flint was at the forefront of America's great industrial boom, riding a wave created by that newfangled invention, the automobile. In 1903, the young Buick Motor Company moved 60 miles upstate, from Detroit to Flint, to take advantage of the city's carriage-making shops. Five years later, Buick's manufacturing interests in Flint merged into a single corporation: General Motors (GM).

GM eventually became, for a time, the world's largest corporation and a symbol of American industry. For decades, Flint was second only to Detroit as an auto industry hub. In its heyday in the...