The Ford Rouge River plant has been used to produce 28 vehicle models, and continues to be used -today manufacturing aluminum Ford F-150 bodies. But, little remembered today, the factory was not originally built to make automobiles, but to manufacture ships for the US Navy.
Five of the seven US presidents to serve between 1869 and 1901 were veterans of the Civil War, and all were members of one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the history of the republic.