Carrie Blast Furnaces Number 6 and 7 - declared a National Landmark in 2006. Located in Braddock/Rankin, across and upriver (the Monongahela) from Homestead, PA. Part of the steel making complex of Andrew Carnegie, which was sold to J.P. Morgan and became US Steel.The steel industries, which were the backbone of the city, collapsed during the Raygun admistration in the early 1980's, and today much of the old city is abandoned.
Settled in 1823, Bradford was chartered as a city in 1879 and emerged as a wild oil boomtown in the late 1800s. The area's Pennsylvania Grade crude oil has superior qualities and is free of asphaltic constituents, contains only trace amounts of sulfur and nitrogen, and has excellent characteristics for refining into lubricants. World-famous Kendall racing oils were produced in Bradford. The refinery, bought out by American Refining Group, is the oldest continuously operating refinery in the United States. Bradford is also famous as the home for Case Knives and for Zippo lighters.
View of the old town from the back yard. The building with the COSCO sign on it is the mayors penthouse. These pictures are clickable for closer view.
The Carnegie LibraryWhen Andrew Carnegie dedicated the Braddock Library in 1889, he intended it primarily for the benefit of his employees of his first major steel mill, the Edgar Thomson Works, and their families. The Music Hall, Pool, and Gymnasium were added in 1893. At a time when few homes had indoor plumbing and a bath was a rarity, this was the place where employees could come to shower or bathe, take a swim, enjoy a book, play billiards, and get a haircut!
Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteKinda resembles my town here Geez, Upstate NY is part of the Ol' Rust Belt too y'know.
We've been shedding jobs like a dog sheds fleas for the past 35 years here, no good jobs here 'cept for teachers, healthcare work and other gubmint/taxpayer supported stuff.
And that's gonna be gone up here because the state has a 15 billion Federal Reserve Note deficit and our governor says the sheeple have to bear the cut-backs and higher taxes instead of the millionaires that no longer work on Wall Street.
I wonder if Mr. Obama will subsidize my apple stand?
Apples G? The answer will have to go to a higher power, starting with aipac...):
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be somewhat insulated here in Oregun, but we've always been behind on the employment situation. We're the first ones to feel it and the last ones to catch up, which never happens because of the next downslide.
The return of free enterprise to the sheeple is the only chance for us common shuman beans, without which, the FDA, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, et al will control even something so humble as selling apples. And that's assuming that we can get permits, clearance from the health commision, local business licence, etc. etc. blawblablabla.
Then too, If you grow the apples yourself, you are of course not allowed, by law, to peddle them yourself.
The American way that we knew in yesteryear has gone the same way as the towns in the rust belt, with controls that put the stranglehold on all but those who have connections with the corporate government.
Manufacturer and sole proprietor is a quaint prospect that ended in the 1870's, and now the fisherman can't market his fish and the poultry man can't sell his chicken to the public without governmental control, which will result in, the near future, genetically engineered food. My worst nightmare is a chicken with centipede genes, because I never did like drumsticks...G: