The Pontiac Silverdome

For a quarter-century, the largest stadium in the NFL sat right here in Pontiac — an 80,000-seat behemoth under a Teflon roof held up by nothing but air pressure, glinting silver in the sun. The Silverdome hosted the Lions and, in their early years, the Pistons, but its real legend is the sheer scale of spectacle it held.

Super Bowl XVI in 1982. WrestleMania III’s claimed 93,173 for Hulk Hogan vs. André the Giant in 1987. A Mass said by Pope John Paul II before 93,682 that same year. Led Zeppelin’s record-setting indoor crowd in 1977. And the first World Cup matches ever played indoors in 1994 — on real grass grown on pallets by Michigan State. Then heavy snow collapsed the roof in 2013, and after a famously botched two-attempt demolition, it finally came down in 2017. Today Amazon owns the 199-acre site and runs a fulfillment center employing thousands where Barry Sanders once ran for 2,000 yards. From cathedral of spectacle to logistics hub — few places capture the shift in the American landscape quite so starkly.