These Awe-Inspiring Factory Tours Will Make You Proud to Be an American

American Automobile Manufacturing at Ford's Rouge Factory Tour

Ford's F-150 trucks are perennial best sellers as well as regular nominees and frequent winners of Motor Trend's Truck of the Year and similar awards. This year, Ford has added a revolutionary new aluminum body. You can see how it's assembled at the Rouge Factory Tour, part of Ford's Henry Ford complex in Dearborn, Michigan. The complete tour experience includes a visit to an observation deck, a walking tour of the plant, a 13-minute film, a 14-minute multisensory experience, and a visit to a gallery of historical Ford products.

Tours operate Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Because of varying production schedules, the factory is idle at some times and is closed on some holidays. Tickets cost $15 for adults, $14 for seniors, and $11 for youths. Advance reservations are recommended.

The complex center is in Dearborn, about 12 miles from Detroit Airport and 20 miles from the city center. Public transit is possible but not convenient.

Piano Creation at Steinway & Sons Factory

You'd have a tough time naming any product manufactured in the U.S. that has reigned at the top of the worldwide quality and performance lists for more than 150 years. But Steinway pianos have. Since first winning a gold medal at the American Institute Fair in 1855, the Steinway brand has had a long run at the pinnacle of the piano hierarchy. Famous keyboard artists of all stripes, from Franz Liszt to Billy Joel, play or played Steinways. These days, the company's lesser brands are made outside the U.S., but the top-of-the-line grands are still made only in New York City and at a branch factory in Germany.

Steinway is undoubtedly the most exclusive tour on our list. The official Steinway corporate website no longer even mentions the tours, but a company spokesperson recommends this website for tour information. Tours operate infrequently—generally on Tuesday mornings—and the schedule is variable. Call 718-721-2600. You must book well in advance; Steinway accepts no walk-in visitors. The tour takes two and a half hours and includes some stairs, and visits are subject to a bunch of other rules.

The factory is at 1 Steinway Place (where else?) in Astoria, Queens. The closest subway stop is Ditmars Boulevard on the N and Q lines. The plant is about two miles from LaGuardia Airport.

Corvette Production at Bowling Green Assembly Plant

Since its first model in 1953, the Chevrolet Corvette has reigned at or near the top of the list of U.S. sports cars. Yes, some muscle cars may get you from zero to 60 a tad more quickly, but add agile handling, and the Corvette is tough to beat. Corvettes are now assembled in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the folks there are happy to have you visit them. The tour takes you on a one-mile walking visit through the final assembly process. Unfortunately, however, the tour does not include a test drive around the track—and no samples.

Tours operate Monday through Friday, at 8:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., and 2:00 p.m., with scattered one-day and multiday blackouts through the year. Admission is $7 per person.

The Corvette plant is about five miles east of the city center, near an off-ramp on I-65. Bowling Green is between Louisville and Nashville and not far from Mammoth Cave and several distillery tours. Use your car.

Whiskey Making at the Maker's Mark Distillery

Visit the distillery of one of the world's top-rated whiskeys in rural Loretto, Marion County, Kentucky. Everyone 21 and older gets to taste the Maker's Mark product and dip his or her own bottle in wax for sealing.

The tour operates Monday through Saturday throughout the year, from 9:30 a.m. through 3:30 p.m. Admission is $9 per person and free to visitors under 21 years.

Loretto is about 60 miles south of Louisville; there is no public transportation to the distillery, but tour buses regularly visit. If you plan to visit Mammoth Cave, Loretto is an easy side trip.

Other famed Kentucky and Tennessee distilleries also offer tours, including Heaven Hill's Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown, Kentucky, and Jack Daniel's in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Bat Making at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory

More than 60 percent of all current major league players use a Louisville Slugger bat, as do thousands of lower-level pros, college and high school athletes, and rank amateurs. Top players honored on the company's "Walk of Fame" include Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. The half-hour factory tour covers the complete manufacturing process that turns a hunk of wood into a precision implement that drives baseballs up to 500 feet. And the associated museum coves a wide range of baseball memorabilia. Much of the museum is actually outdoors, along the adjacent street.

Tours operate Monday through Saturday (except holidays) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with some extended hours during the summer. The factory tour takes about 30 minutes. Admission is $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $7 for kids ages 6 to 12.

The factory and museum complex is easily accessible on Main Street in downtown Louisville.

Harley Manufacturing at Harley-Davidson Factories

The Harley name immediately conjures up a motorcycle design and lifestyle known around the world, and the company is proud to let you see how it makes its machines. It's proud enough, in fact, to let you in to three different locations: the plant that produces touring models in York, Pennsylvania; the factory that produces the sportier models in Kansas City, Missouri; and the plant that produces powertrains in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Tours start with a short video, then you go out onto the factory floor.

All base tours are free. The York and Kansas City tours operate weekdays all year. The Menomonee Falls tour operates only on Mondays. All three plants also offer extra-cost, extra-feature Steel Toe Tours on different days. Check the visitor website for more details.

Tabasco Production at Avery Island

The McIlhenny Company has almost been too successful with its product: These days, a request for Tabasco will often get you some other brand of hot sauce. But Tabasco is known worldwide and respected as a condiment you can find almost everywhere. No other maker of hot sauce can offer the tour experience you get with Tabasco: an exploration of the entire Avery Island, including the factory plus acres of growing area.

Tours operate daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (except major holidays); bottle filling operates only Monday through Thursday. You pay a $1 conservation fee; admission to the island's Jungle Gardens and Bird City is an added $8 per person or $5 for children 12 and under.

Avery Island is 140 miles west of New Orleans and 30 miles south of Lafayette. Get there by car.

Railroading History at Golden Spike Tower

Passenger rail may be moribund, but U.S. freight railroading leads the world in efficiency and is doing very nicely, thank you. If you're interested in more than just casual train-watching, consider a visit to Union Pacific's Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, Nebraska, which overlooks Bailey Yard, the country's largest and busiest rail yard. It has been a vital center for the transcontinental railroad since it first rolled through in 1866, and it now serves one of the busiest rail links between the Midwest and West Coast. Unfortunately, passenger trains no longer pass through this yard; the California Zephyr uses the rival BNSF tracks through Nebraska.

The Golden Spike Tower and its associated visitor center are open daily, year-round, with seasonally variable times. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors ages 55 and older, $5 for students ages 6 to 16, and free to kids 5 and under. Tours are wheelchair accessible.

The center is about two miles west of the North Platte city center, which is on I-80 about halfway between Denver and Omaha. Get there by car.

Jet Assembly at the Boeing Factory Tour

Boeing got to be one of the world's two remaining giant passenger-airliner builders by designing and producing top-notch products. So it's hard to see how any tour could outrank the one at Boeing's Future of Flight Aviation Center in Everett, Washington. There, you can see how one of the two dominant makers of passenger planes assembles its world-leading 747-8, 767, 777, and 787 airliners.

The center offers tours seven days a week (except for a few holidays), hourly from 9 p.m. to 3 p.m. Advance reservations are recommended, and tickets cost $16 to $20 for adults, with discounts available for youths. The tour takes an hour and a half and involves a good bit of walking, including climbing stairs. Children must be at least four feet tall, and wheelchair touring is possible with advance notice.

Boeing's Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour is located in Everett, about 25 miles north of Seattle. Public transportation is not good, but some Seattle-area sightseeing tours include a Boeing visit.

Chip Production at Intel

In 1965, Intel Corporation cofounder Gordon Moore made an observation that has since become known as Moore's Law: "The number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles every two years." Since then, his company has been the primary implementer of that law, and, as you probably know, Intel processors currently dominate the world of personal computing. Even Apple builds on Intel chips. Because of how relentlessly Intel has pursued Moore's Law, the processor you can buy today for $100 to $400 (depending on the model) provides computing power that would have cost many thousands of dollars back in 1965.

You can catch a glimpse of what goes into Intel's chips at the company's Museum and Visitor Center in Santa Clara, part of California's legendary Silicon Valley. It's open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

The center is just off Bayshore Freeway (U.S. 101), at Montague Expressway. It's more than a mile walk from either the Santa Clara transit or Capitol Corridor rail stops, but several bus routes stop in front of the entrance.

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