With the passage of the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, railway construction boomed in the United States and called for more and more steel. In 1886 Andrew Carnegie envisioned a new business opportunity and bought a five year old steel mill, located in Homestead, Pennsylvania, on the Monongahela River. Here along the grimy river bank, just a few miles south of Pittsburgh, stood a large cluster of buildings, topped with towering smokestacks. Carnegie, a believer in cost control, sidestepped safety concerns and issued two 12 hour work shifts, seven days a week, keeping up a continuous operation. Steelworkers unionized, and confrontation was inevitable. The governor called upon the state police to quell the riot, a historic first.
Today, the large steel manufacturing plants have disappeared, along with their oppressive atmosphere. Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area Group is working toward the establishment of a national park. This stirring photograph of these Homestead smokestacks displays a reminder of a historic past when the roaring blast furnaces were heard for miles, and smokestacks filled the sky with a sooty haze. United States Steel was once one of the largest steel mills in this country, employing 7,000 workers, covering 400 acres and stretching along the river's edge for three miles.