Interesting video on rise and fall of steel industry...

One of my favorite books is "Sparrows Point," which covers the rise and fall of the Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrows Point in Baltimore. I intend to watch that video this afternoon. I hope it includes something on Sparrows Point.

In my previous job, I made sales calls at just about every steel mill (both large and small), iron ore mine, coke plant, etc. in the Great Lakes region and beyond. Mills that once employed thousands had maybe a couple hundred employees.

I remember one guy telling me that there was a shortage of scrap steel for their EAF and I thought to myself, "You would have more than enough scrap if you just tear down some of your empty buildings."

Having grown up in western PA, it was very depressing seeing what happened to those towns.

84lion said:

One of my favorite books is "Sparrows Point," which covers the rise and fall of the Bethlehem Steel plant at Sparrows Point in Baltimore. I intend to watch that video this afternoon. I hope it includes something on Sparrows Point.

Click to expand...

Have you seen Sparrows Point lately?
Completely revitalized.

I did an intern/co-op at union electric steel in Carnegie and Burgettstown when I was at PSU. My IE boss played two years of hoops at a branch campus in the 80s before going to main campus. Was a nice little mill there in Burgettstown that employed around 150 people I think. Those are two of the mills that are actually still going in that area and both have some job openings from what old friends there tell me.

Washington steel and Weirton steel along with the Coke plant in Follansbee West Virginia all closed down many years ago. I think the tin mill portion of Weirton was able to stay operational until around 2022.

If you’re willing to get out of the city and drive either down 79 to Washington or 22 into West Virginia or Ohio, you can probably buy an old millworkers house that might need a little work for under $150,000.

The original Man of Steal, Dave Roderick! And the Men of Steal who followed.

A comprehensive story of the collapse can be found in the book, "And the Wolf Finally Came". Steel industry management was always crying wolf at labor contract negotiating time. Well, the wolf finally came. Difficult read at times but worth it.