OHIO RUST BELT PAGE 2
OHIO RUST BELT PAGE 3
OHIO RUST BELT PAGE 2
OHIO RUST BELT PAGE 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Author Joel Garreau calls the Rust Belt "The Foundry." He writes, "'The Work ethic,' Daniel T. Rodgers, a University of Wisconsin professor, has written, 'has
always been a phenomenon in American life.
'The idea that hard, self-denying labor is the summum bonum of life never cut deeply in the South. It was violated in scores of 19th-century frontier settlements
and rich men's ballrooms...'
But it's tough to maintain that posistion in the Foundry. No one, for example, ever lived in Buffalo for the climate. Or in Gary for the scenic vistas. Or in
Camden for the recreational opportunities. Or in Wheeling for the beach. Blue-collar workers may drink to oblivion, or load up their Winnebagos for a weekend in
northern Michigan, but they do so in response to their work. Welfare is an emotional issue in these highly taxed Foundry cities because its recipients don't work."
Bridge over the Cuyahoga River - Cleveland, OH (Jan. 2005 photo)
1943 photograph of Hulett ore unloaders in Cleveland transferring iron ore from a Lake Erie freighter to Pennsylvania Railroad rail cars. A campaign to preserve these giant machines
in Cleveland failed when the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority demolished them in 2000. (I would like to commend the Ohio Preservation Alliance for trying.) Allegedly two of them are still at work unloading coal near Gary, Indiana. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection)
The Corrigan, Mckinney Steel Co. blast furnaces and ore bridge, Cleveland, 1947. This integrated steel works was enlarged and updated as it changed hands to Republic Steel Co., which was merged into LTV Steel, which was absorbed into I.S.G., until that company was taken over by Mittal Steel Co., the current owner of the facility. (Public domain photo courtesy Berni Rich, Historical American Engineering Record).
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Company's North Plant in Steubenville, OH
The blast furnaces at W-P's North Plant appear to have gone cold.
Closer view of the furnaces in Steubenville, which is best known as Dean Martin's hometown.
The Market Street bridge over the Ohio River with Steubenville in the background.
St. Peter's Catholic Church in Steubenville
A little down the river from Steubenville is the town of Mingo Junction, OH.
Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Company's main steel mill in Mingo Junction
The blast furnaces at Mingo Junction - W-P also has a fairly new electric arc furnace to supplement this operation.
Steps going up the hill in the middle of Mingo-Junction, OH
This huge crankshaft is from a steam powered steel mill drive from a defunct Youngstown Sheet and Tube mill. This engine, called a Tod engine, is being restored and put on public display by the Tod Engine Foundation. The organization is
raising money to complete the restoration and display of the engine by selling a CD-ROM described as "a compilation of historical information regarding the William Tod Company and photos and information about the preservation of the Tod 34" x 68" x 60" cross compound stationary steam engine."
In this 1942 picture from Chase Brass & Copper Co. in Euclid, OH molten metal is being poured into a mold to form a billet. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection)
Freighter vessels hibernating in front of aggregate processing plants in Fairport Harbor, OH.
Fairport Harbor is frozen over in Winter.
Ruins of the Detroit Steel Co. coke works between Portsmouth and New Boston, Ohio. The steel mill itself closed in 1980 and was demolished in 1989.
After the steel mill closed the coke works continued to be operated under the name New Boston Coke. This operation closed in 2002 but here are the remaining coke ovens and coal processing building that remain. The metal doors on the ovens have been removed, leaving the refractory
brick lining of the ovens naked.
Closer view of the coal processing building at the former Detroit Steel Co. coke works on the edge of Portsmouth.
People living next to smokestacks - Chillicothe, Ohio