The Carrie Furnaces were built in 1881 as part of U.S. Steel's Homestead Works, a sprawling 400-acre complex that spanned both sides of the Monogahela river. They produced up to 1,250 tons of steel a day until 1978 when they were closed. The majority of the site was razed for a shopping center but the 100-foot high furnaces still stand. The furnaces were designated as a national historic landmark in 2006 and preservation efforts are underway.

In 1955, when renowned photojournalist W. Eugene Smith was creating images of Pittsburgh that would eventually become a book called Dream Street, Pittsburgh was the quintessential Rust Belt city. According to the 1950 census, Pittsburgh was home to more than 676,000 residents and was the 12th largest city in the country. Steel was the city’s main industry, and aluminum, glass, petroleum and shipbuilding were also part of its economy. Although Pittsburgh was thriving, the industrial smoke was sometimes so thick that streetlights were on during the day giving it the nickname "Smoky City.” In an effort to clean up its reputation of a dirty and polluted city, civic leaders began projects to transform the city. Pittsburgh began to describe itself as undergoing a “rebirth,”replacing its smokestacks with glass skyscrapers and its slums for modern neighborhoods. It was being called a city in transition. When the U.S. steel industry collapsed in the 1980’s the Pittsburgh region entered the same depressed state as the rest of the so called Rust Belt. Jobs were lost by the thousands and workers left the area to search for work. Once again the Steel City is said to be experiencing a rebirth, with a rapidly growing economy largely based on healthcare, education, technology and banking. This rebirth may be true for Pittsburgh proper, but the scene looks a lot more bleak for the towns along the three iconic rivers that converge in the city. Ironically the steel industry that brought Pittsburgh international fame existed almost entirely outside the city on the banks of the famous Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers. Other famous steelmaking complexes were located farther both up and downstream in the towns of Homestead, Rankin, Braddock, Duquesne, McKeesport, Clairton, McKees Rocks, Aliquippa and Midland. These towns are the suburbs that helped make Pittsburgh an industrial powerhouse. Driven by an influx of foreign-born workers at the turn of the 20th century, immigrants helped fill jobs in the mills, where steel was forged for the aircraft and battleships that helped win two world wars. But if you drive through these towns today, it’s clear they have been largely forgotten. Once bustling shopping corridors are all but empty. The company homes where workers raised their families are showing their age, and residents still reminisce about the “good old days” before the mills shuttered. It looks like it just happened, but it has now been 25 years since most of the mill shut down and not much has changed for the people who remain. In recent years, the media has reported extensively about the rebirth of Pittsburgh, but very little attention has been focused on the city’s suburbs and the plight of the people living there — except, perhaps, during election season. For a time it seemed as though those dreams would be found in the streets of their new home. Many of the people living there today are doubting that those dreams still exist.

Images from the days leading up to the 2016 Iowa Caucus