Fascinating! Thanks for sharing. One can only imagine what's coming out of that middle stack.
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Wow...look at the stuff coming out the chimneys! Great look back John, thanks for sharing it! The social commentary this view will provoke is worth the price of admission! And you thought you were just shooting steetcars? I don't think so.
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Very nice picture! You can judge the era by the brownish colour of the smoke coming from the chimney.
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Looks like it was before EPA Air Quality rules as well. What a delightful shade of orange!
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Hey John, this is a real look back in time...what a gem this is. Taken during a time when the US still made things! Wonderful juxtaposition of the PCC cars against the backdrop of such a huge steelmill.
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This could almost pass as a model train layout!
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| Posted by PaulJW on March 14, 2009 | |
Pittsburgh, Pa. "The Steel City" produced more steel than any other city in the world from the late 1800's to the late 1960's. I can remember the street lights coming on at noontime or 1PM in the afternoon, from the smoke blocking the sunlight. And that was only back in the early 1960's. People would have to "hose down" there homes every year from the build-up of ash, dust and debris, all from the smokestacks that dominated the city. It sure is a much cleaner city now. Healthier too.
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| Posted by on November 8, 2012 | |
The EPA was indeed already putting on the pressure, and within just a couple years, these mills on the north side of the plant that made the "odds and ends" would be gone (with the exception of the slab mill, which can be seen in blue just behind where the trestle curves out of view). ET needed these trestles to transport hot iron from the blast furnaces overtop the B&O main, which bisected the plant east-to-west. There were also underground pedestrian tunnels to accomplish the same thing. Two years from now, B&O would abandon the main all the way through Braddock in favor of using the P&LE's alignment, just south of the plant - a similar move to the one it made in McKeesport. Currently, the old B&O right-of-way in Braddock is actually intact in the form of a series of vacant lots, however, ET later built the BOP and Caster overtop of it when they began expanding the plant from 13th St to 11th St in 1970. At the bottom of the hillside below this shot, USS also had a parking lot on the north side of the PRR with a tunnel under it to Braddock Ave., all of which were abandoned when most of the parking was moved down by the BOP. Employees and contractors also now use PRy's right-of-way adjacent to Braddock Ave. to park on busier days.
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