The Steel Towns

19 galleries

Searching for Dream Street is an ongoing photographic expedition to document the status of the old steel towns along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers within approximately 40 miles of Pittsburgh, Pa.

Since the collapse of the steel industry in the United States in the 1980s, these towns, like most steel towns across the country, have suffered crippling economic hardships. Not only did the jobs leave with the mills, but the towns’ tax bases of the towns were also decimated.
The result has been over 25 years of high unemployment, poverty, crime and crumbling infrastructure. While a few of these communities have managed to overcome these obstacles, they are still not the bustling economic boom towns they once were.

The goal of this project is to photograph these towns and their people, illustrating the problems they continue to face and bring their stories to the forefront. The hope is to incite political action and financial investment to help bring these communities back to their former glory.

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Aliquippa

429 images

In 1909, Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation (J&L), which already had a mill on the south side of Pittsburgh, wanted to expand, so it purchased land along the Ohio River near the town of Woodlawn about 25 miles downriver from Pittsburgh. The company expanded the town, building homes and businesses to accommodate the workers of what would become the largest steel mill in the world, stretching for 7 miles along the riverfront. Renamed Aliquippa in 1928, the town began to thrive, and in the early 1940s, the population swelled to more than 27,000, and as many as 9,000 people were employed at the J&L Aliquippa Works.
Ambridge

49 images

Ambridge was founded by the Harmony Society in the early 19th century and called Economy in 1824, American Bridge Company bought most of the land in 1905 and the town was incorporated as Ambridge. American Bridge attracted thousands of immigrants to work in the mills and Ambridge became known for bridge building, metal molding, and the manufacturing of large iron pipes. As with other towns, Ambridge was hit hard when American Bridge Company ended operations 1983 and from the decline of the mills such as the Babcock & Wilcox Co. Ambridge is one of the few communities that has been able to exit the state Act 47 program for distressed communities. Although it is making a comeback, many of the storefronts in the shopping district are still boarded up.
Arnold

1 image
Brackenridge

10 images
Braddock

217 images

With a population of just over 2,000 (down from a high of 20,879 at the height of the steel industry, Braddock is almost a ghost town even though it is the home of the last steel mill still in operation in the Monongahela River valley. The Edgar Thompson Steel Works, built in 1872, was the first major steel mill built in the United States. Braddock was originally built to house the mill’s workers, but none of the mill’s nine hundred or so employees live there.
Clairton

131 images

Clairton, home to the world's largest coke production facility, was founded just after the turn of the 20th century when Crucible Steel Company acquired land along the west side of the Monongahela River 13 miles south of Pittsburgh. Soon after, the Carnegie Steel Company (later U.S. Steel) built an integrated steel mill the coke production facility. Struggling for 28 years and designated a distressed municipality by Pennsylvania's Department of Community Affairs, it was removed from the distressed classification under the Financially Distressed Municipalities Act (Act 47) in 2015.
Duquesne

50 images

Duquesne was home to the Duquesne Works steel mill that was part of Carnegie Steel Corporation and later part of U.S. Steel. It was home to the largest blast furnace in the world, named the "Dorothy Six" The city's population peaked in 1930, then declined with along with the decline of the steel industry. Today Duquesne has fewer total residents then worked in its steel mill.
Etna

14 images
Homestead

76 images

In 1940, 19,041 people lived in Homestead and most worked at the Homestead Steel Works along the Monongahela river. By 1980, it had become difficult to obtain employment at the Homestead Works, which was not producing much steel at that time. In 1986, the mill closed and the mill was demolished in the early 1990s, replaced in 1999 by The Waterfront shopping mall. After the loss of the mill, the number of people living in Homestead plummeted. By the time of the 2010 census, the borough population was 3,165.
McKeesport

53 images

McKeesport has a population of about 20,000 now down from over 55,000 in 1940, with the decrease due to the decline of the steel industry. The major employer was the National Tube Works, a manufacturer of iron pipes, which once employed 10,000 men. National Tube closed in the 1980s, following the other U.S. Steel plants in the Mon Valley. McKeesport was the site of the first G. C. Murphy five-and-ten-cent store.
Midland

11 images
Monessen

125 images
Natrona

45 images

Natrona, Pa., a traditional blue collar town in western Pennsylvania, is bordered by the ATI Brackenridge Plant. About eight blocks away, on the other side of town, stands the former Allegheny Ludlum Natrona melt shop which was shut down in 2010. Natrona, originally known as East Tarentum, was built as a company town by the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company in the 1850s
Neville Island

77 images
New Kensington

65 images
Pittsburgh (Downtown)

46 images
Pittsburgh (Hazelwood)

140 images
Rankin

216 images
Shippingport

19 images