At a trivia game last week, we had, as a halftime question, “Name 4 of the 5 largest U.S. cities that are on one of the Great Lakes”. Since I had questions about whether Detroit was actually on a Great Lake, we named off the other four that were unambiguously correct (Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo) and got full credit.
However, I just looked at a map, and think my initial skepticism was correct.
The north side of Detroit is on Lake St. Clair. It looks like the closest Lake Erie gets to Detroit is the town of Gibraltar, which is several miles south of Detroit proper.
I think if it asked for the cities on “the Great Lakes” this would be a valid interpretation. But since it asked for “one of the Great Lakes”, I’d think it would have to actually be on a Great lake, not just on either them or the connecting waters.
The fifth isn’t Detroit. It isn’t, in fact as you stated, actually on a Great Lake. The next largest U.S. city to be on a Great Lake would probably be Rochester, NY at a population of 210,000.
Toledo isn’t really on a Great Lake either; it’s technically on Maumee Bay. (Although this list says otherwise. I still say it’s not actually on Lake Erie.)
The answer you’re looking for is probably in that list. I say Rochester. That list says Toledo.
By this logic most of the worlds biggest seaports wouldn’t be on the oceans they serve; bays are just a geographical designation of a larger body of water. Boston for instance is considered to be on the Atlantic Ocean even though it’s technically in the Massachusetts Bay.
But as for the OP, no one from Detroit thinks we are on one of the Great Lakes.
Lake StClair is not a “Great Lake”,nor is Detroit on it. Detroit is on the Detroit River. However, both Lake StClair and the Detroit river are in the Great Lakes chain.