What was the rouge plant

Ford even purchased and operated a rubber plantation in Brazil. To bring all these materials to the Rouge, Ford operated a fleet of ore freighters and an entire regional railroad company. At no time, for example, did Ford have fewer than 6, suppliers serving the Rouge. In total, he acquired a 2,acre stretch of bottomland along the Rouge River.

The Rouge River property still was not earmarked for any particular use. Ford had even considered turning the land into a large bird sanctuary. Roosevelt engaged Henry Ford to build boats. In , a three-story structure, Building B, was erected on the Rouge site to build Eagle Boats, warships intended to hunt down German submarines.

Building B was the first substantial Rouge building and today serves as part of the Dearborn Assembly Plant. Although the war ended before the Ford Eagle Boats ever went into action, the effort did allow Ford to widen the Rouge River substantially, presenting the possibility of bringing ore boats up the river. The Rouge soon became the destination of massive Ford lake freighters filled with iron ore, coal, and limestone. The first coke oven battery went into operation in October of , while blast furnaces were added in and Iron from the furnaces was transported directly to the foundry where it was poured into molds to make engine blocks, cylinder heads, intake and exhaust manifolds, and other automotive parts.

The foundry covered 30 acres and was, at its inception, the largest on earth. In steelmaking furnaces and rolling mills were added. The Rouge initially produced submarine chasers, or Eagle Boats, then tractors. The Model A was the first car produced there, beginning in Factory Tour.

In addition to several chassis assembly lines, the self-sufficient complex included a tire-making plant, a stamping plant, an engine casting plant, a transmission plant, a radiator plant, and a tool and die plant. At one time, the unique facility even included a paper mill and a soybean conversion plant that turned soybeans into plastic auto parts. A massive power plant produced enough electricity to light thousands of homes. There was so much electricity to spare that the plant provided the city of Detroit with a million kilowatts of excess power every day.

Ford boasted that the Rouge facility featured "the largest completely mechanized installation of handling equipment ever installed in any industrial enterprise. Located a few miles south of downtown Detroit, at the confluence of the Rouge River and the Detroit River, the original Rouge complex was a mile and a half wide and more than a mile long.

The statistics are mind-boggling:. But, statistics alone fail to capture the magnificent power and presence of this enormous industrial icon, conceived by Henry Ford and known simply as "The Rouge. Henry Ford and the Rouge are part of America's mythic consciousness. We made these pilgrimages to the Rouge for one reason: To see the miracle of American manufacturing.

Ford began buying the property that was to become the Rouge in In total, he acquired a 2,acre stretch of bottomland along the Rouge River. At one time, Ford considered turning the land into a large bird sanctuary. In , Ford built a fabricating building and a 1,foot-long erecting building.

Inside were three assembly lines, each capable of carrying seven boats. Each foot vessel was assembled with , rivets.

Each keel was laid on a foot railroad flatcar, which was towed down the assembly line as work on the hull progressed. When a finished hull reached the south door of the building, it was moved onto a large transfer platform and rolled on rail toward a slip. It was then rolled onto a launching trestle that was hydraulically lowered below the water in the slip, leaving the boat to float. Before the last of the Eagles were assembled in , Ford moved auto body-building machinery into the buildings, which were later transformed into chassis assembly lines.

The war demonstrated how vulnerable Ford Motor Co. For instance, the Highland Park plant suffered a number of work stoppages because of supplier failures. Ford and his team of engineers took all the lessons learned at Highland Park and expanded them. According to Biggs, the Rouge complex was a great, integrated machine that was unlike other auto factories.

Henry Ford decided to make his company self-sufficient through vertical integration. His ultimate goal was to achieve total self-sufficiency by owning, operating and coordinating all the resources needed to produce complete automobiles. Ford acquired , acres of forest, iron mines and limestone quarries in northern Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The company also owned coal mines in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Ford even purchased and operated a rubber plantation in Brazil.

To bring all these materials to the Rouge, Ford owned a regional railroad and operated a fleet of ore freighters. Ford's quest for vertical integration hinged on the idea of continuous flow "from earth to assembly.

Allan Nevins, co-author of a landmark book entitled Ford: The Times, The Man, The Company Charles Scribner's Sons , describes the Rouge as "a domain that was without parallel both in size and in sheer mechanical efficiency. The total effect on the observer was both unique and impressive. The first impression was one of vastness and complexity. Ford's dream of making an affordable car for the masses required him to continuously reduce costs.

Ford's ambition was never completely realized. Today, the Rouge has undergone a sweeping transformation to become a model of 21 st -century sustainable design. Henry Ford wanted it all when he built the Rouge complex. Autonomy through control of every aspect of production from raw materials to finished product.

Why worry about the cost of electricity to run everything, when I can build my own power plant and generate what I need? Located a few miles south of Detroit at the confluence of the Rouge and Detroit Rivers, the original Rouge complex was a mile-and-a-half wide and more than a mile long. It totaled 15,, square feet of floor area crisscrossed by miles of conveyors.

There were ore docks, steel furnaces, coke ovens, rolling mills, glass furnaces and plate-glass rollers.