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Steel
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Forks
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Andrew Carnegie's opening of the Edgar Thomson Works at Braddock in 1875 introduced cheap, high-volume steel to the Pittsburgh region. As a young executive of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Carnegie saw that iron train rails were wearing out too quickly, causing devastating train derailments. The railroad was ordering stronger Bessemer steel rails all the way from England, which inspired Carnegie to quit his railroad job to manufacture them in Pittsburgh.
Recognizing the profits of mass production, Carnegie hired engineers to streamline and mechanize the steel making process so that it ran with thousands and thousands of unskilled workers. When Carnegie merged with Henry C. Frick's coke mining and processing company, they introduced the nation to the modern corporation with control over all aspects of production from ore to finished product ("integrated manufacturing") and changed the face of Pittsburgh. In short order steel mills moved into the flood plains rural river towns such as Homestead, Duquesne, Aliquippa, Monessen, and Ambridge. A large steel plant had everything it required nearby, shoehorned into the tight space of the river flats: blast furnaces, foundries, rolling mills, and machine shops to make plant equipment. Boilers and powerhouses next to the plants kept them operating independently. Furthermore, to make sure those factories were steadily supplied, Carnegie Steel bought the coke mines, iron fields, and even the railroads that connected them to the mills.
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TOP: Workers stoke beehive coke ovens, which were built into the hills near coal mines. Coke is a purified form of coal that was necessary to make steel. Henry C. Frick built his fortune as the "Coke King" of Fayette County before he joined Carnegie Steel Company. BELOW: Rick Sebak and the WQED crew peek into the ruin of a beehive coke oven while filming Things That Are Still Here. |
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Description of related video segments:
- Beehive coke ovens
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These new plants were mechanized to the point that they did not need the skilled master craftsmen who ran the iron works--all they needed were strong muscles. Wages could be kept low because a continual supply of cheap labor poured in from overseas or the rural south. Immigrants arriving from Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and later, from all around eastern and southern Europe, found themselves working 12-hour shifts to provide the unskilled, manual labor that powered the steel mills and related industries. When the supply of immigrants dried up during World War I, African Americans and poor whites moved from the south to work in the mills. (More on migration and ethnicity in Creating Community.) Mill and mine owners often built cramped housing near the mills and mines, called "company houses," and rented them to their workers. It was an effective method of job security, since a worker would be less likely to quit his job if it also meant he'd lose his home in the deal. Work conditions were often hazardous and there was no compensation in case of death or injury.
Successful companies tried to control the cost of every aspect of production --including labor. To compete with even lower prices, Carnegie Steel cut wages in 1892. In a famous showdown, workers demanding a restoration of higher wages were locked out of the Carnegie Homestead Works. When the company resolved the "strike" by calling in Pinkerton guards to let the strikebreakers in, violence broke out. As a result, the budding labor movement suffered a big setback nationwide. Unions would struggle for legitimacy for many years until the 1930s when New Deal reforms and national labor unions give them enough "clout" to bargain successfully. To be fair, some other Pittsburgh manufacturers, like Westinghouse, Heinz, and Alcoa, were on the forefront of reforming the working and living conditions of their workers.
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The Carnegie Steel Building was the first skyscraper built Downtown. Skyscrapers were made possible by the cheap steel that Carnegie pioneered. The integrated corporation created many "white collar" managers who worked away from the mills in office buildings like these. |
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks |
Description of related video segments:
- Skyscaper History I: Park Building
- Skyscaper History I: Arrott Building
- Skyscaper History I: Benedum Trees Building
- Frick Building and leveling Grant's Hill
The character of Downtown began to change as factories and residences left the central business district and corporate offices moved in. Banking to facilitate Pittsburgh's incredible economic success grew along Fourth Avenue, which later came to be known as Pittsburgh's "Wall Street." In 1913 more money changed hands in Pittsburgh than in any other city besides New York!
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A 1907 postcard of the Fourth Avenue financial district, "Pittsburgh's Wall Street." The wealth accumulated by manufacturing early in the century was so significant that by 1913 more money changed hands in Pittsburgh than in any other American city outside of New York! Downtown's character changed during this era, becoming the Central Business District with think of today. |
Collection of Susan Donley |
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