EDGAR THOMSON STEEL WORKS

The historic Edgar Thomson Works stands where Turtle Creek flows into the Monongahela River. A six-month strike in 1986-87 concluded with an agreement between the United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel to build a continuous caster in Braddock. This gave the historic mill a new lease on life.

A small park in front of the mill proudly displays the last plate from the old rolling mill and the first continuous cast slab. Named for the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad that served the facility, the plant was the first jewel in Andrew Carnegie’s Mon Valley crown that came to include major mills in Homestead, Duquesne, McKeesport and Clairton. When Captain Bill Jones was killed in an explosion, young Charles Schwab successively became manager of the Braddock and Homestead mills, eventually president of U.S. Steel, and later Bethlehem Steel.

Dramatic labor events occurred at the mill’s gate. In June 1914, 1,000 women picketers led Westinghouse Electric strikers by the mill on their way to Swissvale to peacefully shut down the Union Switch & Signal plant. On May 1, 1916, a militant electrical workers’ march culminated in an invasion of the steel mill and adjoining shops. On May 2, a shootout at the gates left three dead and thirty wounded. In 1919, steelworkers waged a national strike for months. The strike was crushed, but its central demand for an end to the twelve-hour day, seven-day week was achieved by public pressure in its aftermath.

Edgar Thomson Plant is part of U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works, also including the coke plant at Clairton and Irvin Works, West Mifflin. ET is at 1300 Braddock Ave., Braddock