Tuesday 14May19 Steel Mill
Didn't wake up until 9 this morning. Because of the late start I decided not to run. I did have the usual breakfast and got underway by 10.
I headed towards Homestead to checkout the historic steelworks. Sadly when I got to the site of Carrie Blast Furnace
I discovered it was closed. I started back on the road and was met by a vehicle going towards the locked gate. I backed up all the way to the gate just as the guy was about to relock the gate. I ask him about tours and was told that in May there were only tours on Saturday. I asked him several different ways if there was a way that he could show me around today. He said he was there for a meeting so sadly that wasn't possible.
I drove across the bridge to Homestead and stopped at a museum.
This is in the historic Bost Building. In 1982 during a strike It is where the townspeople watched what was happening at the steel mill. Carnegie had first purchased the Carrie Blast Furnace. Next he purchased the steel works in Homestead. Then he establish I business partner ship with a guy named Fisk who supplied the coke required to get the furnace hot enough to effectively melt the raw irion ore. At some point the two of them decided that the workers were getting paid too much so they cut their pay. This cause a strike. In an effort to keep the mill working Fisk and Carnegie hired Pinkerton agents to surround the steel mill so that strikebreakers could get through to get to work. At some point Shots were fired and several townspeople and Pinkerton agents were shot and killed.
It got so bad that the militia was sent to keep calm for over 90 days. Ultimately Carnegie and Fisk won and the townspeople went back to work for lower wages then before the strike began. Nothing really changed until the 1930s when the Steel Workers Union became strong enough to get their demands.
This is called a hot metal bridge. The iron ore was melted on one side of the river and then transported by special rail cars to the other side of the river while still liquid.
This is one of the pump houses used. It takes a vast amount of water to operate a steel mill.
During WW2 the mill was expanded to support the war effort. The planks for the battleship Missouri were made by this press.
The battleship Missouri is where the Japanese sign the peace treaty ending World War II.
This huge crane was used to move the molten steel.
I drove from Homestead to downtown Pittsburgh right during rush hour traffic. I found a place to park north of downtown on Butler St. I had a couple of sandwich there in the RT and stayed there until 11:30. I then drove back downtown and parked close to Point State Park. I walked from there to the very point of the park.
It was midnight when I was at the point.
After leaving the park I drove about 12 miles on I376 to a Walmart where I stopped for the night.