Well, GE was never in the machine tool business, except that they produced computer controls for them. But yes, the American industry built machines that would last, and could be rebuilt again and again. It would never surprise me to see a 40 or 50 year old Bullard still at work making jet engine parts or fuel pumps for Musk's rocket engines.
Tools that were used in the GE tool shops in Schenectady in the first half of the 20th century, whoever manufactured them.
BTW my first job in the machine tool industry had me rebuilding and installing some large gantry mills at Fairchild Republic for making A-10 wing skins. My last big project had me at Lockheed Fort Worth, installing a huge CMM for gaging the F-35 skins. While I was there I watched crews removing four (or was it six?) Cincinnati Milacron gantry mills that had made thousands of F-16 parts. Milling of F-35 frames and landing gears and such were being subcontracted out, I guess, and the skins are carbon fiber, with minimal machining being done on a German 5-axis machine. My CMM was also German. No American company could come close to building one that big.