THE WORKING RIVER
Commerce on the water.
The Detroit River was a working corridor long before it became a skyline backdrop. Freighters, docks, warehouses, ferries and industrial waterfront property connected the city to Great Lakes shipping and to the larger manufacturing economy.
River traffic helps explain why industry, rail and warehousing clustered where they did. It also gives the site a geographic spine: Detroit was built facing an international waterway that moved people and material every day.