World Trip 2002 - Detroit
The
Fisher Body Works was according to David, the home of the automotive industry
in Detroit. It was one of the earlier car manufacturing plants to still exist.
I had pictured it all set up for Model T Fords but it had obviously been modernized
since it was first built as it had some pretty up to date equipment in it.
The place does not look all that big from the outside, being only six stories high, but those are high stories and it is a whole block long. The inside is far more interesting than the outside.
In Detroit our first stop was downtown, then the impressive Michigan Central Station and finally the Fisher Body works.
Fisher body works. A very early Detroit car manufacturing plant.
From out back you begin to get an idea of the size of the place.
Lots of air vents around back too.
There were the obvious signs of abandonment, huge holes in walls, trees growing in the cracks and big holes in fences.
Well they didn't keep the area clear.
There was not much to see on the ground level, which was okay because there was pretty poor light down there. Not good for photography.
Darkness on the ground floor.
The second floor was better. Note the broken up wooden cobbles on the floor. Buildings like this used wooden cobbles to absorb vibration from heavy machinery and to reduce noise levels.
Though quite dark, I like this photo for the pattern of peeling paint on the fire doors.
View out the 3rd floor window
David gives a scale to the place. There was of course whole piles of debris littering the place.
In some areas it looked quite bare.
Debris stacked up in disused corners
Far views indoors.
A nice clear picture of the third floor of the building looking from the front of the building to the back.
Office area on the fourth floor. Lots of nice old doors and window panes.
I presume this was once a draughtsman's office where they designed cars. Note the car on the wall on the right.
More offices or workshops.
You can barely make it out in the photo, but this room had a floor with a noticeable slope towards the middle. The supports under this floor had probably collapsed. We chose not to walk on this floor. This is the first time I have seen a concrete structure in a state of collapse like this. Most often they are quite stable.
Peeling paint and toilets.
Exit to the dodgy stairway from hell. There were two stairways in this abandoned building, and both were missing their hand rails.
Inside the dodgy staircase from hell. You could easily look down a full six stories. One false step and you would head down the middle.
The big giant car lifting elevator shaft.
The windows of the building were a light blue in some places, casting a cool light inside.
Big vast empty spaces on level five.
More of level five
Sun shining in the windows. The hole in the floor here descends to the level below. I presume a chain or belt for powering machinery here came up from the lower level.
Air ventilation ducts.
A close up of those ducts shows they excavated air from the levels below. Note once again the use of wooden cobbles on the floor.
Tables and wooden debris. While piles of construction timber 2 by 4 were left here.
Level 5 air con.
Entrance to the two big lifts on level 5. Most levels had these doors missing.
Detroit through a broken window.
Level 6. The action packed top floor.
Big chunky machinery, tunnels six stories above ground. Hidden secret passages. Cool!
Top floor car baking oven. I have to tank David for encouraging me to come up here when I was afraid of the staircase from hell which had no guard rails at all.
It was very easy to imagine turning this track into a really cool ghost train ride.
This was obviously a car baking area, used to dry paint or enamel.
Either that or it was where they did the initial painting. The many extractor fans support this theory.
Little rail tracks like this spread though out this level of the abandoned factory.
Ahh, it's the ghost train tunnel of doom. Or maybe a baking oven for cars. Most likely the latter.
More lights and track in the ghost train ride.
Similar to the image above, but to one side.
Heaps of equipment. All just left behind.
More track.
The ghost train ride.
A nice straight stretch of track. This comes from the ;do not work beyond here' area.
I am not sure how this would work. I think those things hanging down would rub over the tops of cars.
The end of the ride?
A small room where I presume they did something that produced fumes, note the extraction vents.
Large open area free of tracks.
All sorts of equipment.
Typical control panels with most of the copper wiring removed.
Staff auditorium. I forgot I even photographed this.
Ladder leading up to the top of the vents and the roof. But we used the stairs.
Big nasty open elevator shaft. The elevator had crashed to the bottom of the shaft years before.
Ventilation ducts.
Rooftop
Rooftop.
They left just one vehicle behind, this floor sweeper.
My host in Gary and Detroit was David of Forgotten Detroit. His web site is well worth looking at.
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