Aerial view of the Rouge complex in 1942

Interior of the Rouge Tool & Die works, 1944

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. The Ford Motor Company (often referred to simply as Ford; sometimes nicknamed Fords or FoMoCo, (NYSE: F) is an automobile maker founded by Henry Ford in Detroit, Michigan, and incorporated on June 16, 1903. ... A small variety of cars, the most popular kind of automobile. ... Dearborn is a city of nearly 98,000 people located in the Metro Detroit metropolitan area and Wayne County, Michigan. ... The River Rouge is a river in the Metro Detroit area of southeastern Michigan. ... Detroit River seen from Grosse Ile Township, Michigan The Detroit River is about 51 km (32 miles) long and 1 to 4 km (0. ... Zug Island is an industrial region in the city of River Rouge, Michigan, on the southern boundary with Detroit. ... 1917 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

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 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. Events and trends The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. ...

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. See Albert Kahn (banker) for the French banker. ...

The Rouge started producing Eagle Boats and tractors. The original Building B, a three-story structure, is part of today's Dearborn Assembly factory. 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. Coke is a solid carbonaceous residue derived from low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal from which the volatile constituents (including water, coal-gas and coal-tar) are driven off by baking in an airless oven at temperatures as high as 1,000 degrees Celsius so that the fixed carbon and... The term foundry originally was a synonym for a steel mill or general metal works where metal casting operations were performed. ... Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Ford Model T The Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and the Flivver) was an automobile produced by Henry Fords Ford Motor Company from 1908 through 1928. ... The Highland Park Ford Plant was a production plant for Ford Motor Company in the city of Highland Park, Michigan, which is surrounded by Detroit. ... 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Model A was the designation of two cars made by Ford Motor Company. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... The designation Ford Model B, like Ford Model A, was actually used for two different automobiles. ... Mercury is an automobile brand name of the Ford Motor Company founded in 1939 to market semi-luxury cars slotted between entry-level Ford and luxury Lincoln models. ... Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird is a car manufactured in the USA by the Ford Motor Company. ... The Ford Mustang is a popular sports car. ...

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. May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ... 1937 was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Battle of the Overpass was an incident on 26 May 1937, in which labor organizers clashed with Ford Motor Company security. ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ...

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. 1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Front wheel drive is the most common form of engine/transmission layout used in modern automobiles, where the engine drives the front wheels. ... Ford Probe The Ford Probe was a car produced by Ford between 1989 and 1997, with a redesign in 1993. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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 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. Mustang production, however, has moved to the AutoAlliance International plant in Flat Rock, Michigan. Sustainability is an economic, social, and environmental concept. ... William A. McDonough (1951, Tokyo, Japan - ) is an American architect whose career is focused on designing environmentally sustainable buildings and transforming industrial manufacturing processes, with the twin goals of eliminating pollution and increasing the profits of his clients. ... AutoAlliance International (AAI) is the name of a joint venture automobile assembly firm co-owned by Ford Motor Company and Mazda Motor Corporation. ... Flat Rock is a city located in Wayne County, Michigan. ...

External link

• The Henry Ford Museum's Rouge history page (http://www.thehenryford.org/rouge/history.asp)