This hulking piece of machinery almost looks like part of a space rocket. Photographer Dan Cog took these photographs at the abandoned Wheeling-Pitt steel mill in Steubenville, Ohio, part of the so-called “Rust Belt” of the US. Roughly speaking, this area starts in central New York and stretches through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and parts of Michigan, before culminating in north Illinois and east Wisconsin. The region has also been called the “industrial heartland of America.”
Like many other plants in Ohio and across the Rust Belt, Wheeling-Pitt was once part of America’s industrial hub. Thanks to its proximity to the Great Lakes and its accessibility by road, rail and water canals, industrial manufacturing thrived in this part of the country. However, towards the end of the 20th century, heavy industry began to decline, and new industries have recently cropped up in the area, including biotechnology, the polymer industry and nanotechnology. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, the owners of the plant in Steubenville, went bankrupt in 2012, and the mill was sold to a metal recycler.
No comments:
Post a Comment