This is the famed Carrie Furnace, which sits derelict on the banks of the Monongahela River in Rankin, PA. At the height of its glory, the Carrie Furnace cranked out 1250 tons of iron per day. Getting close enough to take pictures is no small task.
The land all around the old factory is closed off with a chain link fence and plenty of "No Trespassing" signs. Apparently the county is redeveloping this area into a riverside park and historic site. The plant was constructed in 1884 as part of the immense Homestead Steel Works--the bulk of which was across the river. The Carrie Furnace was in operation until 1982, though only furnaces #6 and #7 remain.
Despite my thorough pre-trek research on Google Earth, it actually took some effort to find access to this place. I ended up going back into Braddock, then following a meandering brick lane through the flat industrial wastes along the river. You pass under the Rankin Bridge--which most Pittsburghers know as the gateway to Kennywood. When the road ends at a gate, you park and walk down the railroad tracks. There's a drop-off to one side of the tracks; down in that murky chasm there runs a spooky little road that seems inaccessible to cars (above photo). This eerie pedestrian tunnel probably runs up the hillside to the workers' neighborhoods in Rankin. The date above the entrance is 1932.
When Soviet leader Brezhnev visited the United States in 1973, one of the things he most wanted to see was the great Homestead Steelworks, which at the time was the largest steel factory in the world. Aside from a line of old smokestacks in a mall parking lot across the river, this all that remains.
Twice, as I was walking along the tracks, trains came rumbling past and forced me into the gravelly margins. On the trek back to the car, I tried in vain to outrun the train. It sure feels weird to be running down the tracks with a big old Conrail locomotive barreling up behind you. Also, there were about half a dozen workmen on the grounds of the factory, presumably turning the place into a park.
This is the old "Hot Metal Bridge" over the Monongahela River, as seen from a tiny city park on the hillside up in Rankin. The Hot Metal was never a public thoroughfare; it was used solely to transport hot metal between the Carrie Furnace and the main complex of the Homestead Works.
For a little while, I considered ranking Rankin among the "Iconic Towns of the Mon Valley" and categorizing this article with that series (below). But honestly, Rankin was never really one of the big satellite cities in the region. It's not an unpleasant place. Despite a pretty high rate of poverty, Rankin has fewer abandoned buildings than its closest neighbor, Braddock. And some stretches of 3rd Avenue were especially nice; they reminded me of Belgium (last photo). But the fact is that Rankin was always pretty much residential and industrial--unlike Braddock, McKeesport, Clairton, and Duquesne, which were full-scale cities in their own rights. Rankin had the Carrie Furnace, but obviously never had much in the way of a business district, or commercial buildings, or even stately churches--aside from the onion-domed St. Michael's Orthodox.
Getting into Rankin is easier than getting out. Most of the town's brick streets seem to come to dead ends at warehouses or small factories. I had to follow a city bus as it wended its way through Swissvale and back to Braddock Avenue. All in all, Rankin seemed like a pleasant enough place, even if the white police officer slowed down and stared at me hard as he drove past.
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