DESTINATIONS — THE US
Ford Rouge Factory
a ready supply of iron ore and timber, and a position on key rail and shipping routes, all of which made it such a hotspot for the car industry, it was nicknamed ‘Motor City’. By 1924, General Motors and Chrysler – the other two of the Big Three car manufacturers – had their headquarters in Detroit. By 1950, it was the richest city per capita in the US. However, by 1980 the rising cost of oil and competition from Japan had sent the US automobile industry into a skid – and Detroit’s fortunes with it. Visitors can trace this rise and
fall via the city’s most famous son, Henry Ford. The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant is the oldest auto plant in the world open to the public, and is the birthplace of the Model T. Inside the unprepossessing brick building, there’s enough vintage bodywork to make an enthusiast weep. Even to a philistine like me, the cars in here are beautiful specimens – in particular Elizabeth, a gleaming red-and-gold Model T that was the 5,575th to come off the line.
Public tours run from 10am to 4pm, Wednesdays to Sundays, and start from $10. At the nearby Fisher Building, the sheer wealth the automotive industry generated is evident. This 29-storey skyscraper built in grand art deco style was completed in 1928 as a model for the new American shopping mall. No expense was spared – there are 52 types of marble, 430 tonnes of bronze and ranks of chandeliers. Fans of the TV series Mad Men can walk the floors trodden by Don Draper, as the building was used in filming as General Motors HQ. Free tours run every Saturday at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm, starting at the Pure Detroit shop at the entrance, which sells items made by local designers. The Guardian Building tells a similar story, in the heart of Downtown.
Then it’s on to the suburb of Dearborn to see what remains of Ford’s operation here, at the Ford Rouge Factory. When completed in 1928, it was the largest integrated factory in the world, a mile long by a mile and a half wide, employing 100,000 workers. Today, it employs only 6,000, but it’s still Ford’s largest factory and the home of
Guardian Building 52 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 2 July 2015
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