Unnamed Steel Mill – Buffalo, New York

The green paint still pops on these gas chamber doors at a once well-known but now abandoned steel mill in Buffalo, New York. (Photographer Joe Bergquist asked us not to share the name of the mill because, officially, it’s closed to visitors.) The rest of the machinery, however, fits right into its Rust Belt surroundings. The company that ran the mill was once among the primary ship builders and steel producers in the US.

During the late 1940s and early ‘50s, the company helped make uranium fuel rods for the government that were used in nuclear reactors. Yet the most productive period in the plant’s history came in the 1950s, when the company’s annual output rose to around 23 million tons of steel.

The silent, eerily abandoned mill represents the downfall not only of this particular company but also of the steel-production industry all over the US. For 20 years, American steel faced minimal competition from the outside world. However, this all changed in the 1970s, when overseas companies with new production methods began to supply steel at cheaper prices than local firms. Finally, in 2001, this particular company was forced to file for insolvency.