Industry
West Point Foundry in Cold Spring, New York, was one of the nation’s most important nineteenth-century ironworks, operating from 1818 to about 1911 as a major producer for military and civilian markets. Founded in the aftermath of the War of 1812, it made artillery, pipes, sugar mill equipment, locomotives, and in 1843 built the USS Spencer, noted as the first iron ship built in the United States. Under superintendent Robert Parker Parrott, it developed the Parrott rifle cannon in 1860 and reached its Civil War peak, producing cannon and shells for the Union. The site later declined and now survives largely as an archaeological landscape.
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Cold Spring, New York · United States
