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Journey through the complicated economic and environmental history of the steel industry in The Mon.Perfect for fans of the history of American industrialization.Pittsburgh's
Monongahela Riveris named after the
Lenape Indianword
Menaonkihela, meaning
where banks cave and erode. The name is fitting: for over a century, these riverbanks were lined with steel plants and railroads that have now
caved and erodedaway.
By the 1880s,
Carnegie Steelwas the world's largest manufacturer of iron, steel rails, and coke. However, in the 1970s, cheap foreign steel flooded the market. Following the 1981-1982 recession, the plants laid off 153,000 workers. The year 1985 saw the beginning of demolition; by 1990, seven of nine major steel plants had shut down.
Duquesne,
Homestead,
Jones & Laughlin, and
Eliza Furnaceare gone; only the
Edgar Thomsonplant remains as a producer of steel.
The industry could be said to have built and nearly destroyed the region both economically and environmentally. While these steel plants are lost today, the legacy of their workers is not forgotten.
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Pittsburgh native Robert S. Dorsett has exhibited his photographs in the Three Rivers Arts Festival, as well as in the Historic Homestead Pump House in 2013. Images from his personal collection provide a sense of what the old steel plants were like at the end of the "Age of Steel."
