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Apr. 2009 image by author
Diner in Brownsville, PA.
Jul. 2004 image by author
This slag pile near Monessen,
another Monongahela River town, was probably created by Wheeling-Pittsburgh
Steel Company, which was the lifeblood of the town until the 1980's.
Nov. 2006 image by author
Wheeling-Pittsburgh's
integrated steel mill in Monessen has been torn down, except for this coke
works, later operated by Koppers, then Arcelor-Mittal.
Nov. 2006 image by author
Quenching hot coke at
Koppers' coke plant in Monessen, PA.
1991 image by Jet Lowe, Historical American Engineering Record
Wheeling-Pittsburgh
Steel Co. shut down the Monessen works in 1986. This is how the idled blast
furnace and steel mill looked in 1991. Most of this is gone now.
Jul. 2004 image by author
Monessen's cultural make
up is largely Italian-, Slovak- and African-American, but there are other groups as well.
Dec. 2003 image by author
Industrial sunset on the Mid-Monongahela Valley - both literally and figuratively. Monessen coke plant shown.
Dec. 2003 image by author
This was
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel's last remaining operation in the Monongahela Valley - the
Allenport mill. Its closure in 2007-2008 was the end of an era of steelmaking in Mid-Mon Valley towns such as Donora and Monessen.
Sep. 2009 image by author
Charleroi, Pennsylvania, showing mill houses with the former Corning Ware factory behind them.
Jan. 2006 image by author
Barges are a fixture
on the Mon River. In the background is an industrial section of Donora, a town
that was famous for it's killer 1948 smog. The air seems fine now, though.
Jan. 2006 image by author
Another view of Donora.
Jan. 2006 image by author
Donora, a classic Western
Pennsylvania town, as viewed from across the river in Webster, PA. As a matter of fact, the Rust Belt phenomenon could be said to have began
in Donora when U.S. Steel closed their plant there in 1966.
Jan. 2006 image by author
Steel and wire is no
longer made in Donora, but some industry does remain.
Jan. 2006 image by author
The Mon Valley Plant of
Ductmate Industries, Inc.
Jan. 2006 image by author
The historical
infracstructure of the Rust Belt is evident in the Webster bridge.
Sep. 2009 image by author
Somewhere between the Borough of New Eagle and the City of Monongahela.
Jul. 2006 image by author
This old industrial complex
along the Allegheny River is the original location of ALCOA's aluminum
manufacturing plant. In the background is the city of New Kensington, PA.
Jul. 2006 image by author
Here's a closer view of the
old ALCOA complex in New Kensington. ALCOA'S predecessor - the Pittsburgh
Reduction Company - established an aluminum producing plant on this site in
1891, however none of the structures from that plant survive. After 1900 no
aluminum was produced in New Kensington. Instead aluminum PRODUCTS, especially
cooking utensils, were manufactured here. This once successful venture ended
when ALCOA closed the New Kensington works in 1971.
Jul. 2006 image by author
Alley in New Kensington.
Image courtesy of Charles Rodkey
Allegheny Ludlum is a
producer of stainless steel that has been a mainstay of Western Pennsylvania
since it was formed in 1938. Here are their facilities containing their furnaces
for melting various types of steels in Natrona, PA.
Image courtesy of Charles Rodkey
Detail of Allegheny
Ludlum's Natrona plant in the setting sun.
Image courtesy of Charles Rodkey
A final view of the "hot
end" of Allegheny Ludlum's stainless steel operations in Natrona.
Image courtesy of J.S.
Allegheny Ludlum steel worker wearing his "hot metal suit" to protect him from the intense heat
of the furnaces and molten metal in the ladle.
Jul. 2006 image by author
An old industrail
district in the middle of Derry, Westmoreland County.
Jul. 2006 image by author
Ruins of the old
Westinghouse ceramic insulator plant in Derry. Westinghouse, once one of the
dominant corporations of western Pennsylvania, sold the plant in 1985 to
Industrial Ceramics, Inc. It is unknown when they closed the factory, but it
still sits in the middle of Derry borough in a half-demolished state.
Jul. 2006 image by author
Moss growing inside of the
Derry insulator plant shows how long it has been since the plant was
operational.
Jul. 2006 image by author
Another view inside the
insulator plant at Derry.
Jul. 2006 image by author
One of the remaining kilns
for the manufacture of ceramic insulators at the old Westinghouse plant.
Jul. 2006 image by author
Ukranian bowling alley in Derry, Pa.
Nov. 2004 image by author
Mt. Pleasant in
Westmoreland County was known for its glass manufacturing.
Sep. 2009 image by author
Photo of Mount Pleasant, PA taken
while standing in the middle of Route 31. The large building with the green
roof is Pritt's Feed Mill, typical of small Rust Belt towns.
Jul. 2006 image by author
Friday evening in the Rust
Belt - Everson, PA.
Feb. 2007 image by author
AES Beaver Valley coal-fired power plant.
plant.
1979 image by Jet Lowe, Historical American Engineering Record
Bethelehm Steel in
Bethlehem, PA. When this photo was taken in 1979 I doubt that anyone would have
believed that this mill would ever close. But close it did in 1995, and
once-mighty Bethlehem Steel Co. doesn't even exist anymore.
Image courtesy of Nic Pouliot
Here's a Whitworth steam bending press somewhere in the dead steel mills in Bethlehem, PA.