Until I saw this I really didn't realize how far back the automobile industry and railroads go.
https://imgur.com/XjbgPx0
Looking for an industry on your pike?
That is such a neat photo - in more ways than one: did they send an army of guys with brooms through the area just before that photo was taken, or was it just a naturally more-tidy era?
Lots of details to study including the boxcars, the three water tanks on the roof, the decorative brick of the stucture, the dual gates (road and sidewalk) at the grade crossing, and the semaphore signal. And just a couple of people are in view -- are we over-populating our city sidewalks with scale figures?
I have a book in my collection about the history of the AAA and much of it concerns the AAA's role in encouraging the building of good roads particularly in rural areas and between cities. Shipping new automobiles by truck was not an option back then not just because the trucks were small but because the roads between cities were pretty bad, except in the cities themselves. Railroads had a near monopoly on meaningful shipment of large items.
Dave Nelson
I agree that many industries of the time (power plants, too) were built as cathedrals to industry.
Often there are high resolution .tiff downloads available from the Library of Congress (where many of the Shorpy fodder comes from) and you can study the very small details.
Another location in Michigan that has always caught my eye was the Glazier Stove Co. negatives.
Glazier_Chelsea-Mich by Edmund, on Flickr
Another neat photo to examine is this view of Boston's South Station.
South_Station_1905 by Edmund, on Flickr
Note the "slip-switch to nowhere" in the lower right and evidence of track realignments in several places.
Neat stuff! I use up many hours examining these fascinating photos.
Thank you, Ed
I went to Wikipedia to find out more about the earliest days of the Cadillac Motor Car Company. I was surprised to learn it was originally founded as the Henry Ford Company but Ford had a disagreement with his investors and left the company. The investors were going to liquidate it but the engineer they hired persuaded them to make a go of the company and the first Cadillac rolled off the line in October 1902.
I'm not sure whatever became of that Henry Ford fellow.
IIRC early in the 20th century the Dodge brothers were involved with the Ford Motor Co., so all three of the 'big three' had some connection to Henry Ford.