October 14, 2022
by David O’Hallaron, Member, Pittsburgh PrimeTimers®
A contingent of Pittsburgh Prime Timers recently took a guided tour of the Carrie Furnaces site, which is a National Historic Landmark located near Pittsburgh. The original facility was a collection of seven blast furnaces on the north shore of the Monongahela River that provided molten iron for the Homestead Steel Works, which was located directly across the river. It sat on 168 acres of land and operated continuously from 1884 to 1982. Only two of the seven furnaces survived demolition before the site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2006. We toured those two remaining furnaces. The tour was both fascinating and horrifying!
It was fascinating for two reasons: First, we learned some cool technical details about the iron-making process. Each furnace was a massive cylinder about 100 feet tall and 15 feet in diameter. Workers continuously dumped a mixture of crushed iron ore, coke (pure carbon), and limestone into the top of the furnace, and blew superheated air up from the bottom. The mixture slowly descended, interacting with the rising superheated air. By the time the mixture reached the bottom of the furnace 10 hours later, it was transformed into molten iron and a waste byproduct called “slag”. The slag was carried away by rail, dumped into giant “slag heaps”, and later used to provide fill for things like roadways, shopping centers, and housing developments. The molten iron was poured into insulated “bottle cars” and transported by rail across a specially constructed “hot metal bridge” to the Homestead Works, where it was then turned into steel. This process went on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Second, we learned that the site has been transformed into a valuable community resource, hosting numerous concerts, drive-in movies, weddings, and art festivals, as well as serving as a palette for muralists and iron sculptors from around the world. It has also become a wildlife sanctuary for deer and other animals.
The tour was horrifying because we learned about the work environment that Andrew Carnegie and his henchman Henry Clay Frick imposed on their workers in the pursuit of profits. Although mill jobs were considered well-paying with good benefits, the workers were subjected to horrific working conditions, including terrific heat and noise, noxious fumes, constant danger with little regard for safety, crushing 12-hour shifts, and no job security. Many workers were killed in accidents, and many died premature deaths. There was no union representation until shortly after WWII, after which things began to improve.
All in all, we really enjoyed our tour of the Carrie Furnaces and appreciated learning about an important part of Pittsburgh history.
