Carrie Walk #13672

The Story

A walkway through an abandoned industrial scene at Carrie Furnace shows near-total chaos, debris, and desolation. Beyond the open door ahead lies the 100-foot high furnace itself, partly exposed through incomplete demolition. Thanks to local preservation groups, the destruction was stopped at the last moment to preserve two of the original seven furnaces for posterity.

This blast furnace site was part of the steel mill complex near Braddock, outside of Pittsburgh, PA, where steel making still goes on. At Carrie Furnace, the iron making went around the clock for seven decades. Walking through this industrial decay, what remains of the complex is like being on some kind of alien spaceship. Clearly, being there is unlike anything else you might experience. You are small and very dwarfed by the scale of the place too.

Iron is the raw material used to manufacture steel just upriver at Braddock. Molten metal from these furnaces was poured into special insulated railroad cars and moved from here across the Hot Metal Bridge, then along the river and up to the plant at Braddock.

This old blast furnace technology has been surpassed by modern methods. Nowadays, it takes just one modern blast furnace to equal the output of those seven. Only two old iron making furnaces remain at Carrie Furnace in a state of arrested decay and are overseen by a local historical group. You can see more of this interesting and unusual site of industrial decay in the Carrie Furnace gallery on this website.

Location: Carrie Furnace, Rankin, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.