Eliza Furnace

James Laughlin, one of the founders of Jones & Laughlin, built the first Eliza Furnace in 1858 as a stone blast furnace for smelting iron, marking Pittsburgh's emerging iron and steel industry as the first iron furnace built in the city since 1794. By Victorian tradition, furnaces were named after women because they were considered temperamental. As technology changed, Jones & Laughlin rebuilt Eliza and eventually added new furnaces. Molten iron from Eliza was first carried across the river by boat and later by rail cars over the Hot Metal Bridge to the south side, where Bessemer Converters and open hearths stood, and steel ingots then crossed back to be rolled or made into sheets, wire, rails, and other products. Eliza and the other blast furnaces constantly endangered workers, and in 1907 the No. 2 furnace exploded without warning, burning 14 workers to death. Steel men from across the nation came to examine Eliza for flaws, but none were found. As Big Steel changed, the last Eliza Furnace shut down on June 22, 1979, and two electric furnaces across the river on the South Side replaced it; those furnaces closed in 1987.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · United States