During World War I, construction of the first ammonia synthesis plant in the U.S. began at this location in October 1917. Built in only a few months on a crash wartime basis using plans acquired through American and British espionage, U.S. Nitrate Plant No. 1 was intended to produce explosive materials to help win the war. Although the experimental plant did not reach full operational capacity before the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, it established major scientific, technological, and engineering groundwork for future fertilizer production in the U.S. The plant permanently closed in January 1919 and was eventually sold to and repurposed by Reynolds Aluminum. Its ammonia production relied on the Haber Process, which converts atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia by reaction with hydrogen using a metal catalyst under high temperatures and pressures; Fritz Haber won a Nobel Prize for proving this process and first implementing it in Germany.

Photo: Bernard Fisher

Sheffield, Alabama · USA