Editor's note: This Week in Ann Arbor History looks back at some notable moments from the city's past.

In 1976, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority took a step toward its original vision when it approved a downtown circular bus loop.

The downtown circular has been part of the AATA's vision since its founding in 1969, but the concept stretches back to the 1890s when the Ann Arbor Street Railway established a route encompassing most of downtown and what we know as the University of Michigan Central Campus today.

The pilot program was funded for two years and was something of a predecessor to The Link, the purple buses which operated in the downtown-central campus area from Fall 2003 until the Downtown Development Authority and U-M pulled funding in 2009. Just like The Link, the downtown circular was funded by outside sources — a state grant, in the case of the 1976 pilot program.

In other AATA news, Circuit Court Judge William F. Ager Jr. upheld the AATA's right to station a bus stand at its traditional, downtown home at Fourth Avenue and East William.

From 1970 until Oct. 1, 1975, Fourth and William was the AATA's main transfer point, reported Robert Cummins of the Ann Arbor News. The transit authority moved the transfer point to the 400 block of East Washington at the insistent urging of a cohort of local businessmen, represented by attorney James Crippen. With the court's permission the AATA returned its bus stand to Fourth and William, a place it still calls home.

In 1987 the Blake Transit Center was built at Fourth and William, and earlier this month Congressman John Dingell brought home a $1 million grant to rebuild the center, along with $1.7 million for the purchase of 10 hybrid buses.

Ann Arbor supports Democrat Jimmy Carter over Michigan man Gerald Ford

President Gerald Ford had some of his best days in Ann Arbor. He was the starting center on back-to-back national championship teams under Harry Kipke in 1932 and 1933. He was named most valuable player on the 1934 team (albeit on a team that went 1-7 and benched its best player, Willis Ward, who was black, at the behest of Georgia Tech). A Presidential Library on North Campus bears his name. And 60 years after he last strapped on a helmet for the Wolverines. the football team retired his number 48 jersey on Oct. 8, 1994, at halftime of the Michigan-Michigan State game.

But Nov. 2, 1976 was not one of those great days. Despite Ford's U-M ties, Ann Arbor stayed true blue in the '76 Presidential Election, preferring Georgia Democrat Jimmy Carter by a few hundred votes over the Republican incumbent. Ford had inherited the office on Aug. 9, 1974, after Richard Nixon resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

The pattern was no different countywide, where Carter edged Ford by almost 7,000 votes; and 40 miles east, in Detroit, Carter beat Ford by a 3-to-1 ratio. Even so, Ford carried his home state by almost 200,000 votes.

But Michigan's 21 electoral votes weren't enough to turn the tide, nationally, and Carter became the 39th president of the United States.

Not only was the late Ford the only University of Michigan alum or politician from the state to serve as president, but the loss in 1976 made him the only president to never actually be elected to the office.

Ford didn't hold a grudge, neither against Ann Arbor nor his political opponents, returning to the city a number of times after 1976, including for a 1983 public policy seminar he co-hosted with former rival Jimmy Carter.

James David Dickson can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com.