As many of you know I love my industrial explores, they are my favourite kind of abandonment. However, incredibly, this was the only industrial location I managed to explore on my latest trip! Still, it was one I had wanted to see for absolutely years and my main reason for heading to Detroit in the first place, everything else I managed to explore there was a bonus.
The Detroit Harbor Terminal was built in 1925 by The Detroit Railway and Harbor Terminals Company. The ten-storey warehouse was intended to relieve a shortage of available storage space elsewhere. Cargo ships would unload materials at the dock, which were then stored or loaded onto train cars. To support the tremendous weight of so many tonnes of freight, the floors and columns were made out of reinforced concrete, which spread the load across the length of the building. On the north side of the plant was a single-story building that provided heating and cooling, as well as massive engines to power the air compressors. The building is sometimes referred to as the Boblo Island Warehouse because of a huge advertisement for the old Boblo Island Ferry painted on one side.
In 2003 the port closed down and the warehouse was abandoned, but the port was reopened in 2005 handling mostly steel products and the occasional Navy ship docking there, whilst the warehouse building remains vacant to this day.
It used to be an absolute breeze to get into here, with an old fence full of holes and an open loading bay door all that separated people from the inside. However recently a new fence has appeared along the entire length of the road and all but one access point into the building has been sealed. We found our way through the fence after a fashion, and following a very speedy run around the side of the building away from the highly visible road we were in and straight to the roof just in time to catch the sun rise over two countries. The river next to it is the river which separates the USA from Canada and as such there are border patrol boats who like to hang around, so it was very important to not get too close to the edge as they aren't best pleased when people trespass as you can imagine.
After we'd had our fill of the beautiful sunrise we headed down and explored the rest of the huge building. It's pretty samey as nine out of the ten floors are exactly the same in construction, but the ground floor power plant compressor room is extremely cool.
Thanks for looking, more here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157679878994814
The Detroit Harbor Terminal was built in 1925 by The Detroit Railway and Harbor Terminals Company. The ten-storey warehouse was intended to relieve a shortage of available storage space elsewhere. Cargo ships would unload materials at the dock, which were then stored or loaded onto train cars. To support the tremendous weight of so many tonnes of freight, the floors and columns were made out of reinforced concrete, which spread the load across the length of the building. On the north side of the plant was a single-story building that provided heating and cooling, as well as massive engines to power the air compressors. The building is sometimes referred to as the Boblo Island Warehouse because of a huge advertisement for the old Boblo Island Ferry painted on one side.
In 2003 the port closed down and the warehouse was abandoned, but the port was reopened in 2005 handling mostly steel products and the occasional Navy ship docking there, whilst the warehouse building remains vacant to this day.
It used to be an absolute breeze to get into here, with an old fence full of holes and an open loading bay door all that separated people from the inside. However recently a new fence has appeared along the entire length of the road and all but one access point into the building has been sealed. We found our way through the fence after a fashion, and following a very speedy run around the side of the building away from the highly visible road we were in and straight to the roof just in time to catch the sun rise over two countries. The river next to it is the river which separates the USA from Canada and as such there are border patrol boats who like to hang around, so it was very important to not get too close to the edge as they aren't best pleased when people trespass as you can imagine.
After we'd had our fill of the beautiful sunrise we headed down and explored the rest of the huge building. It's pretty samey as nine out of the ten floors are exactly the same in construction, but the ground floor power plant compressor room is extremely cool.
Thanks for looking, more here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/albums/72157679878994814
