Detroit has become the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy.
The move came after an emergency manager couldn't get creditors to sign on to a restructuring plan.
The largest city in the State of Michigan is saddled with more than 18-billion-US-dollars worth of debt.
Detroit Mayor, Dave Bing, says the city will just have to make the best of it.
"The reality is, even the casual observer, even the casual observer, has had to understand for some period of time now that Detroit simply was not on a sustainable footing, continuing to borrow, continuing to defer pension payments, continuing not to pay its bills on time, continuing a deepening insolvency."
The struggling motor city lost a quarter of a million residents over the last decade.
Businesses have also fled leaving the city with a shrunken tax base.
If the filing is approved, the city will be allowed to liquidate its assets to satisfy creditors and pensions.
However the filing puts the city on an uncertain course that could mean laying off municipal employees, raising fees and scaling back basic services such as trash collection and snow ploughing.
The bankruptcy could last over a year.
