JANESVILLE, Wis. -- The Janesville General Motors plant closing isn't good for the state or Rock County, but it's especially hard for the workers and former workers who've considered the facility a part of their family.

Since the plant opened in 1919, the economy has both surged and plummeted, but through it all there has always been constant pride among the workforce as generations of workers passed through the plant gates shaping various vehicles -- and the auto industry itself, WISC-TV reported.

Long before any strikes or picket lines -- long before even labor was organized -- the plant was born out of a merger between a tractor company and a machine company. Together they started producing Samson tractors.

The focus soon turned to cars, though, as auto production began on Valentine's Day 1923.

Nearly a decade later during the Great Depression, news of the first plant shutdown hit the newspapers; however, the shutdown, which was supposed to be permanent, became temporary and three years later the plant doors reopened to a massive celebration.

In the following decades, the plant began producing various cars and trucks -- as well as generations of workers who built strong bonds with the company.

Steve Flood worked at GM for 34 years and retired in 1999.

The 61-year-old retiree was 18 and fresh out of high school, when he joined 7,000 other Janesville GM workers in 1965 and began building his future.

"Initially, getting a job at General Motors, that kind of assured you could have a pretty good life -- if you, you know, you played your cards right, saved your money," Flood said.

Flood started his GM run putting together full-size Chevrolet cars, like the Caprice and Impala. Then he saw more than three decades of vehicle change, including the shift to -- and then from -- the subcompact Cavalier.

Flood's father and two brothers worked at GM too, along with two other family members.

"It's a family place really," Flood said.

Flood said the news of the shutdown is hard to absorb for GM families.

"You know we're still in a numb stage,” Flood said. “We don't even know how it’s going to impact us yet. It's just like a death in the family. Oh my God, they're gone."

Flood and others hope the 3.5-million-square-foot plant will open once again, sometime in the future.

The plant was resurrected after the Depression and survived World War II, when it made artillery shells instead of cars. Perhaps, Flood said, it can eventually survive this too.

Flood said he believes the Janesville plant is a top-notch factory, and that it is currently making the best-quality automotive product available.