OK, this chart is really cool.
Even more intriguing are the metros that have tumbled significantly over the decades . Follow Detroit’s rise and fall and you follow the rise and fall of the manufacturing industry in America. The Motor City broke into the top 20 in 1840 and within 100 years was one of the five largest metro areas in the country. The last three decades have seen a population free fall in Detroit, however, all the way to the number 12 in 2010. St. Louis is now barely on the list after peaking at the fourth most populous metro area in the late 1800s. Baltimore has fallen from top five to barely top twenty.