PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Steel City: it\u2019s the moniker Pittsburgh is best known by and pays homage to the industry that was born on the banks of the three rivers. <\/p>\n
Steel production, as we know it, began in Braddock in 1875 in the form of Andrew Carnegie\u2019s Edgar Thomson plant. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when you see for the first time steel being made not by the pound but by the ton,\u201d Ron Baraff told Channel 11. He\u2019s the Vice President of Historic Resources and Facilities at Rivers of Steel. It\u2019s an organization dedicated to education and the preservation of steel sites in the region.<\/p>\n
As Carnegie\u2019s operation grew, competition boomed. Soon, plants were all over the region. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe wealth that was accumulating in this region was only surpassed by New York and London. There was more capital here than anywhere else,\u201d Baraff said. <\/p>\n
Mass-produced steel became a hallmark of America\u2019s Second Industrial Revolution and was used in everything from train tracks to skyscrapers. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe steel from this region allows for the opening of the world,\u201d Baraff said. <\/p>\n
He says major investments in our region\u2019s steel manufacturing were made during and just after WWII.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moniker of \u2018arsenal of democracy\u2019 has been applied to Pittsburgh and it\u2019s not hyperbole. The steel that came out of this region won the war,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Production hit its peak in the late 1940s and 50s. At that time, plants were employing as many as 17,000 people. <\/p>\n
A decade later, things started to change. That\u2019s about the time Keith Clouse, known by his fellow steelworkers as \u201cChoo Choo,\u201d signed on as a laborer at the Edgar Thomson plant. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had come straight out of the army and into the mills. The camaraderie was very similar. You had to have faith in the guys you work with,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Clouse worked at the plant from 1968 to 1972 and told us veteran workers warned him right from the start that change was coming. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the older guys said, \u2018You better get out of here. This isn\u2019t lasting. They\u2019re not sticking money back here,\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
It was that lack of reinvestment plus changing environmental laws, new technology, labor issues and foreign competition that Baraff says created a perfect storm. <\/p>\n
By the mid-80s, more than 150 thousand jobs were lost, and communities were decimated. <\/p>\n
\u201cDevastating. Absolutely devastating, I watched my community, my neighborhood, my city wither,\u201d Clouse said. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo the public and even the people who were working in these plants, it felt like it was happening all at once,\u201d Baraff said.<\/p>\n
Four decades later, Pittsburgh is an example of resilience, surviving and thriving in industries like tech, medicine and education. <\/p>\n
Steel is still here, but not on the same scale.<\/p>\n
New technology allows hundreds to do the jobs of thousands.<\/p>\n
Despite the change, the legacy of those early years lives on in our institutions and through our people. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was left behind by people like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick with Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh helped to diversify what was happening here,\u201d Baraff said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got to admit I\u2019m still surprised and proud of how this city bounced back. We were down on our knees and got up and made it a hell of a place to live,\u201d Clouse said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is who we are. It\u2019s not just who we were; it\u2019s who we are. It defined this region. This industry created a sense of Pittsburgh, that strength we have,\u201d Baraff said.<\/p>\n
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