and blue Gray Line color scheme. This photo was taken atop the Ambassador Bridge -- which connects Detroit with
Windsor (Canada) across the Detroit River (one of the few locations in the U.S. where one can travel "south" to Canada).
The DSR Gray Line service included sightseeing tours across the bridge to Windsor, Canada. (unknown photo collection)
a young restaurateur named Louis Bush decided to refurbish an old Mack Truck chassis, painted it blue and gray, then
began offering sightseeing tours around the city of Washington, D.C. Little did Bush realize, that those early endeavors of
his would later help to establish the world's leading sightseeing guided tour company, known as Gray Line.
By 1926, Gray Line had expanded to other booming American cities including New York, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans,
Los Angeles and San Francisco, and would even spread internationally to Toronto and Havana. Following World War II, a
former Gray Line employee named Harry J. Dooley managed to acquire the company, and helped to re-establish Gray
Line Chicago. Harry Dooley soon became the president of Gray Line, and is today considered by many to be the father
of the sightseeing industry.
Dooley expanded Gray Line's market throughout the United States beginning in the late 40's, and established Gray Line
companies in Canada, Mexico, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The sudden popularity growth in motorcoach sightseeing helped to
position Gray Line Tours as the leader in the sightseeing industry for decades to follow.
Since 1933 the DSR had become the sole Gray Line franchise operator here in the city of Detroit. Scheduled tours would
run during the months of June, July, August and September. As a part of the department's Chartered Service Division,
the guided Gray Line tours included visits to such places of interest as: Greenfield Village, the Ford Rouge plant, Belle Isle,
and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
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years, coaches were painted in a special Gray Line color scheme, and were reserved for Gray Line sightseeing operation.
With the arrival of the DSR's first fleet of GMC "new-look" coaches in 1960, ten coaches were designated for use on Gray
Line and chartered service operation, but maintained their DSR green, cream and silver color paint scheme. Although the
first ten coaches (#1601-1610) were air-conditioned and lettered, "GRAY LINE SIGHTSEEING TOURS," they were
not specifically utilized solely for Gray Line sightseeing service. During the DDOT years, the coaches used for Gray Line
operation would also maintain the department's current paint scheme, but the trademark diamond-shaped Gray Line blue
logo would always be visible across the exterior of the coach.
Unfortunately, as the city's reputation began to deteriorate during the 1980's, interest in the guided tour service declined
dramatically. By the 1990's very little promotion of the service remained, consequently very few patrons took advantage
of the service. In 2003, after seventy years of providing guided Gray Line tours to various Detroit places of interest, the
Detroit Department of Transportation and the City of Detroit's long affiliation with Gray Line Tours quietly came to a
close. Sadly, the termination of this service in Detroit practically went unnoticed. No doubt, a number of factors helped to
contribute to the elimination of the service, but with ridership numbers extremely low, it was no longer financially feasible to
continue the service.
Today, Gray Line Worldwide Tours is widely recognized and respected as the world's largest sightseeing tour company,
serving more than 200 destinations worldwide. But sad to say, the city of Detroit is no longer one of those destinations.
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Line Worldwide web-site located at: http://www.grayline.com/
