Circa 1973: ”Homestead Works 4 o’clock shift.”

The Homestead Works was at one time the busiest steel mill in the United States. According to the Post-Gazette, the Homestead Works of U.S. Steel produced nearly a third of all the steel used in the country.

“In its 105-year history, the Homestead Works produced more than 200 million tons of steel: Rails and railroad cars, armor plate that covered battleships and tanks from the Spanish-American War through the Korean War, and beams and girders that went into the Empire State Building, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the U.S. Steel Building in Pittsburgh and the Sears Tower in Chicago.”

This photo, found in our archives, shows men leaving the Homestead Works after their shift. The mill shut its doors July 25, 1986, when a lonely band of two dozen men drove out the Amity Street gate for the last time.

(Photo by Ed Morgan, The Pittsburgh Press) 

— Mila Sanina