United States Steel Had a dominant presence in the city of Chicago, with four huge steel mills: Waukegan, IL; Joliet, IL; Gary, IN; and South Works in southeastern Chicago. Built at Lake Michigan north of the mouth of the Calumet River, South Works was famous for producing structural steel that supports many of the nation's tallest buildings. It was a huge plant that employed 20,000 at its peak. The plant used a large variety of locomotives to switch its traffic, but my favorites were its small fleet of Baldwin switchers. They were extremely hard to photograph, but on a few occasions, I was able to shoot one, like USSX 21, pictured here near the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern yard office. As in many cases, South Works was gradually closed and dismantled.
