Big Steel's Legacy

Being in Pittsburgh is at once historically awe inspiring and presently depressing. From the late 1800s to the 1970s, Pittsburgh and its surrounding communities were the steel capital of the world. At one point, steel mills themselves accounted for 40% of all jobs in western Pennsylvania. Now, there is only ONE steel mill operating w/in city limits. The above pictures, taken at the former sight of one of US Steel's 8 mills, is all that remains in a plant that employed over 10,000 workers.

Downtown's buildings, while beautiful to the eye, now stand barely 70% occupied. This is a tribute to the lack of vision that caused the US to loose its competitive advantage over 'foreign' steel. It was once thought that the industry was never to be supplanted. Companies and Unions behaved accordingly. Companies by failing to invest in then modern technology. Unions by failing to see a picture larger than their own paychecks.

The rusting monuments left behind as companies shuttered mills and laid off workers stand as a lesson to my generation and those that will follow.

Jason