River Rouge Plant

The River Rouge Plant (commonly known as the Rouge Complex or just The Rouge) is a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan at the confluence of the Rouge and Detroit rivers and Zug island. Construction began in 1917, and when it was completed in 1928 it had become the largest integrated factory in the world.

Related Topics:
Ford Motor Company - Automobile - Dearborn, Michigan - Rouge - Detroit - Zug island

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The Rouge measures 1.5 mi (2.4 km) wide by 1 mi (1.6 km) long, including 93 buildings with nearly 16 million square feet (1.5 km²) of factory floor space. With its own docks in the dredged Rouge River, 100 miles (160 km) of interior railroad track, its own electricity plant, and ore processing, the titanic Rouge was able to turn raw materials into running vehicles within this single complex. Over 100,000 workers were employed there in the 1930s.

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Some of the Rouge buildings were designed by Albert Kahn. His Rouge glass plant was regarded at the time as an exemplary and humane factory building, with its ample natural light coming through windows in the ceiling.

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The Rouge's first products were Eagle Boats, World War I anti-submarine warfare boat produced in Building B. The original Building B, a three-story structure, is part of today's Dearborn Assembly factory. After the war, production turned to Fordson tractors. Although the Rouge's coke ovens and foundry produced nearly all the parts of the Model T, assembly of that vehicle remained at Highland Park. It was not until 1927 that automobile production began there, with the introduction of the Ford Model A. Later Rouge products included the 1932 Ford V8, the original Mercury, the Ford Thunderbird, and four decades of Ford Mustangs. Currently, Ford F-150 pickup trucks are produced.

Related Topics:
Eagle Boat - World War I - Fordson - Coke ovens - Foundry - Model T - Highland Park - Ford Model A - Ford V8 - Mercury - Ford Thunderbird - Ford Mustang - Ford F-150

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On May 26, 1937, a group of workers attempting to organize a union at Rouge were beaten severely, an event later called the Battle of the Overpass. After the 1960s, Ford began to decentralize manufacturing, building many factories across the country. The Rouge, too, was downsized, with many units (including the famous furnaces and docks) sold off to independent companies.

Related Topics:
May 26 - 1937 - The Battle of the Overpass - 1960s

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By 1992, only Mustang production remained at Dearborn Assembly. Ford planned to replace that car with the front wheel drive Ford Probe, but public outcry quickly turned to surging sales. With the fourth-generation Mustang a success, the Rouge was saved as well. Ford decided to modernize its operations building a new power plant to replace the original one, in which a boiler explosion in 1997 killed six employees and injured two dozen more.

Related Topics:
Front wheel drive - Ford Probe

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Today, the Rouge site is home to Ford's Rouge Center. This includes six Ford factories on 600 acres (2.4 km²) of land, as well as steelmaking operations run by Rouge Steel, owned by Severstal, a Russian steelmaker. The new Dearborn Truck factory famously features a grass-covered roof and rainwater reclamation system designed by sustainability architect William McDonough. This facility is still Ford's largest factory and employs some 6,000 workers. Mustang production, however, has moved to the AutoAlliance International plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.

Related Topics:
Severstal - Sustainability - William McDonough - AutoAlliance International - Flat Rock, Michigan

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Tours of the factory were a long tradition. Tours of the facility began in 1924 and ran until 1980. The resumed in 2004 in cooperation with The Henry Ford Museum with multimedia presentations as well as viewing of the shop floor.

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