why did henry ford choose detroit?
henry ford chose detroit because there was a plentiful supply of trees, but more importantly, the detroit river naturally split the timber shipments in two. this allowed him to establish his own sawmill on both sides of the river for one part of production and then just wheel across on logs or wheelbarrows.
what distinguishes this answer is its willingness to include some basic details about what made michigan an advantageous place to produce cars at that time.
henry ford selected this location for his company largely because there were so many tree bark available. but more importantly, detroit river divides timber supplies in half which allowed ford motor company to independently operate its own saw mill on either side of the river, with wood only crossing over via rafts or wheel
why was detroit a good place for the car industry?
detroit was a good location for the car industry because of its close proximity to canada and many major u.s. industrial cities and lines of transportation, which provided opportunities for support services; excellent access to markets; and proximity to suppliers of key raw materials such as textiles, metals, glass, fertilizers, woods, plastics compounds. there was no better place in america with these same advantages.
why did detroit became the motor city?
it's not clear when the use of motor in this context was first recorded. the 1894 statement, “we are working in the city which has become known as ‘the motor city'”, supports the possibility that people had been associating motors with detroit for years before they initially used it to refer to automobiles. this may have caused people to think of factories that produced motors instead of cars, or it could have reflected a local preference referring to their city by an older nickname.
a 2014 article found newspaper mentions dating back to 1899 for both applications of “motor” and mainly favoring “detroit who became internationally famous for its automobile industry”“. they also mention the same interview with george medbury from 1893-94 so don't really
what did henry ford do in detroit?
in 1903, henry ford built his first moving assembly line for the production of the model a. products were put on a conveyor belt and would move from worker to worker until they were fully assembled. this allowed cars to be mass-produced with interchangeable parts, which meant that the price of a car was significantly cheaper – about one third less than it had been previously. this model set a precedent for assembly lines in most other industries so it became know as “fordism.”
