IRON WORKERS UNION FOUNDING (1896)

Location: First Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219

In 1896 the founding convention of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers convened in Morewood Hall at the corner of Second and Grant Street. Pittsburgh’s Local 3 hosted a meeting that attracted delegates from six major cities. Then as now, Pittsburgh had the most bridges and bridge builders in the country.

With the development of structural steel beams and elevators, buildings grew dramatically taller, and constructing “skyscrapers” became a major source of ironworker employment.

In 1903, Pittsburgh witnessed its worst construction accident when a high bridge being constructed by the Wabash Railroad over the Monongahela from a tunnel through Mount Washington to a terminal in downtown failed.

As the central span was being extended over the Monongahela River, it collapsed onto passing coal barges. Ten ironworkers were killed and more injured. A passerby described the scene:  “They fell through the air like flies. The men were shrieking and yelling as they fell. The entire mass fell with a sickening thud on the barges beneath. One of the barges was sunk immediately but few of the men on the barges saw the mass falling on them.”

Hundreds of ironworkers rushed from all around the city to aid in the rescue. Wabash Bridge supports are still visible on both banks of the Monongahela. At the 1904 Iron Workers convention in Toronto, worker safety was asserted as a central concern of the union.

lronworkers Union Founding (1896) marker, between Boulevard of the Allies and 1st Avenue, Grant Street