George Westinghouse, inventor and industrialist, envisioned a factory and town on the sloping hillside where Trafford stands today. In 1902, the Westinghouse Company acquired parcels of land near Stewart's Station on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the new town became known as Trafford City, named for the British Westinghouse Electrical & Manufacturing Co Ltd in Trafford Park, Manchester, England. The decision to establish a foundry there grew directly from the early success of Westinghouse's innovations in introducing and developing alternating current for light and power, which drove major growth in the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh. To meet rising demand for his products, Westinghouse built the Trafford Foundry, a plant originally made up of an iron foundry, pattern shop, brass foundry, powerhouse, and laboratory that employed over 500 workers. Operations began on October 3, 1903, and the foundry initially produced turbine and condenser castings for other Westinghouse plants. The iron foundry was the largest building on the property, measuring 612 feet long by 184 feet wide, with exterior brick walls 36 feet high supporting a steel truss roof covered with 3-inch-thick wood sheeting and slate shingles. At its peak, the roof reached 80 feet high and included a cupola and skylights for natural lighting. Because generators as large as 42 feet in diameter had to be built in sections and hoisted onto rail cars, Trafford's proximity to the other East Pittsburgh works and the convenience of the Westinghouse interworks rail system enabled the company to manufacture large turbines weighing as much as 130,000 pounds.