Of all the wonders that American ingenuity has produced over its first 250 years, perhaps our deepest imprint on modern society was made in Detroit. Henry Ford, the son of an Irish immigrant, was born in 1863, built his first car in 1896, and by the nation's sesquicentennial in 1926, had turned his Model T into the best-selling car in the world. In the early days, it took more than 12 hours for Ford's workers to produce a single vehicle.