DETROIT WORKS · RAIL, RIVER & FREIGHT

INDUSTRIAL LOGISTICS.

Production required constant movement. Steel, components, machinery, fuel, and finished goods traveled through rail yards, sidings, roads, warehouses, docks, and the Detroit River corridor. Industrial geography and transportation geography were inseparable.

FREIGHT CITY

How production moved.

Factories needed routes as much as machines.

Rail yards, industrial sidings, docks, warehouses and truck routes connected Detroit’s plants to raw materials and distant markets. The industrial city was therefore also a logistics city, with freight movement shaping the riverfront, factory districts and major corridors.

Rail linked plants to regional and national networks
Docks connected heavy industry to Great Lakes shipping
Warehouses and truck routes bridged the space between plant and customer
Industrial access helps explain why particular districts developed as they did

FOLLOW THE ROUTE

When this site connects a plant, warehouse, rail line or dock, the relationship should be visible on a period map or supported by a contemporary record. Geography is evidence here, not decoration.