Before Ford turned its River Rouge assembly site into the haven of F-150 production we know today, the facility was responsible for building the ever-popular Ford Mustang. Before that, hell — before the Mustang — Ford’s Dearborn-based factory supplied millions of families with brand-new Ford products of every shape and size. Better known as the River Rouge plant, because of its proximity to the Michigan river of the same name, this sprawling Ford factory was supposed to be able to turn raw materials into new cars without having to rely on other factories or suppliers.
Banking on the idea of vertical integration, Ford had a metal foundry, glass plant and tire plant on-site. Oh yeah, and Ford produced its own electricity for the factory on-site, too. While the site broke ground in 1917, Ford didn’t use it to build cars until 1927 with the introduction of the new Model A. That means, by the time that we get to the video above, the factory had only produced Ford cars for about 35 years. You can almost smell that new factory scent.
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