Tube City Almanac

October 05, 2009

Duquesne Works: 1970

Category: History || By


In honor of the opening of the new Duquesne section of the Great Allegheny Passage biking and hiking trail, we're posting a 1970 brochure detailing the operations of U.S. Steel's former Duquesne Works.

This brochure is the companion to the National Works brochure that was posted back in March.

The Duquesne Works brochure omits the most interesting part of the plant's history --- namely Andrew Carnegie's attempt to ruin the facility.

. . .

Duquesne Works, opened in 1889, was originally a competitor to Carnegie's Edgar Thomson Works just down the river in Braddock.

The plant, owned by the Allegheny Bessemer Steel Co., made rails, and was innovative for its day because it cast those rails directly from hot steel. Carnegie's rail mills cast molten steel into billets, let them cool, then reheated and rolled them into rails --- an extra step that added to Carnegie's cost and left him at a disadvantage.

After making an unsuccessful attempt to buy out Allegheny Bessemer, Carnegie began telling his customers that rails made in the Duquesne Works were unsafe. They lacked "homogenity" that Carnegie said was imparted by reheating the billets.

This was complete nonsense. There wasn't any such thing as "homogenity," but it sounded scientific, and it began to scare railroads away from buying Allegheny Bessemer's rails.

. . .

Meanwhile, the little Scotsman ordered Henry Clay Frick to cut Carnegie Steel's prices for rails below Allegheny Bessemer's prices, knowing that he could withstand losses that would bankrupt the smaller company.

By 1890, Allegheny Bessemer had sold the Duquesne Works to Carnegie Steel --- which continued running the rail mill exactly as before, and the problem of "homogenity" mysteriously vanished.

Stories like those are the reason why old-timers regard Carnegie's generosity as a mixed blessing.

. . .

Anyway, the picture above --- according to the caption --- shows molten iron from a blast furnace at Duquesne Works being dumped into a basic-oxygen process furnace full of scrap metal.

(This was the part of the Duquesne Works that the old-timers called "the BOP shop." It was built in 1963.)

Oxygen was injected into the furnace using a "lance" to ignite and burn off any impurities and turn the iron and scrap charge into molten steel. After cooking the steel to 2,900-degrees Fahrenheit, it was poured off into ingots that could be shaped into other forms.

. . .

Posting things like this brochure always leaves me a little depressed. We used to make things on our waterfronts; now we pay people minimum wage to sell cheaply-made junk shipped here from China.

I wonder who the guys at the bottom of the photo were, and I wonder if any of them were alive to see the publicity surrounding the G-20 summit. I wonder if they agree with Pittsburgh's elders that the region has "reinvented itself" from the steelmaking days.

Duquesne Works was "reinvented" from a manufacturing facility employing 7,000 people to an office park, a bunch of vacant lots and a bicycle trail. I'll bet that the guys in the photo wouldn't say that was progress.






Your Comments are Welcome!

In re: “I wonder who the guys at the bottom of the photo were”

One of them very well could be me. I worked in the BOP shop for 3 years
(‘75-‘77)in a special crain repair crew before transfering to the Blast Furnace (form the pan into the fire).

I am a “Pittsburgh elder” and totally disagree that the region has re-invented itself. If we had, we would have made it better !
terry - October 07, 2009




We as a region have NOT made progress during the reinvention. Unemployment is around 9 % and the “leaders” of this area are happy because we are below the national average..remember that when going to the polls to cast a vote for/against Mr. Onorato (drink tax is still in place) The system and the economy is too far gone to fix, sad to say our best days are behind us. Riding the bike trails and shopping/dining at the former Homestead Steel site is nice however times and family life were better when there was smoke and fire in the air.
Donn Nemchick - October 07, 2009




Terry: Wave next time so that we know it’s you.
Webmaster - October 07, 2009




I agree. Seeing old manufatcuring photos like these is depressing. All we can do is hope that entreprenuers will find the Mon Valley, select one of these cleaned up sites and grow businesses and jobs there – the same way it was done at the beginning of the industrial revolution. The challenge is that it may take several years to develop those mill sites to full potential. There’s also alot of competition with other cities who lost manufacturing plants. Mon Valley needs to promote itself agressively.
John M. - October 07, 2009




With all due respect, saying that the best days are behind the Mon Valley makes it so. Oh, and you can have the “good old days” of dead fish in the rivers, barren river banks, organized crime’s influence in unions and government, air you couldn’t breathe, and good old racial tension.

Technology is allowing us to do our 21st century knowledge based jobs from anywhere we can get a high speed internet connection. Provide people a good place to live, with low crime, excellent schools and green space for recreation and you will be found.
Dan - October 08, 2009




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