![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.002.jpg)
A large statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of the forge, looms atop Red Mountain, a long hill that runs through Birmingham.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.003.jpg)
The statue was created for the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904, as a symbol for the city of Birmingham, celebrating its iron and steel industry.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.004.jpg)
Vulcan was moved here from the local fairgrounds in 1938, and the hilltop park was developed around him.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.005.jpg)
The 55-foot tall steel sculpture was placed on top of a 125-foot tall tower, and an elevator was added in 2004.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.006.jpg)
The park has a museum about Birmingham inside the Vulcan Center.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.007.jpg)
There are displays about the local steel industry.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.008.jpg)
As well as lots more about the Vulcan statue.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.009.jpg)
Outside, in the park around the base of the tower, interpretive signage describes the local terrain and its natural resources.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.010.jpg)
Plaques describe how Red Hill is pock-marked with hundreds of iron mines.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.011.jpg)
At an overlook, a plaque points out steel plants still working in the valley below.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.012.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.013.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.014.jpg)
A map on the ground is embedded with the location of these industries too.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.015.jpg)
Including the largest Old Steel site in the South, U.S. Steel’s Fairfield Works.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.016.jpg)
At the southern end of the valley, in the town of Bessemer, is the U.S. Pipe plant and its new ductile iron pipe mill.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.017.jpg)
McWane is another of the nation’s largest iron pipe companies, and has plants around Birmingham and other parts of the state.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.018.jpg)
The American Cast Iron Pipe Company started in Birmingham in 1905, and employs 2,000 people in this plant.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.019.jpg)
The only active Old Steel plant left in Birmingham though is U.S. Steel’s Fairfield Works.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.020.jpg)
The plant is the largest producer of new, raw steel in the southeastern United States.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.021_0.jpg)
It uses iron ore, taconite pellets, scrap metal, limestone, and coke to make two million tons of steel a year.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.022_0.jpg)
Fairfield Works has the largest blast furnace in the southern USA, making 6,000 tons of molten iron daily.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.023.jpg)
The plant uses a continuous slab caster and continuous rounds caster to make sheet steel and seamless pipe.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.024_0.jpg)
U.S. Steel bought the plant from Tennessee Coal and Iron in 1907.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.025_0.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.026.jpg)
It is one of six integrated steel mills still operated by U.S. Steel, the last of the big old American steel companies.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.027_0.jpg)
Walter Coke is one of two large coke works still operating in Birmingham.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.028_0.jpg)
The site was first developed in 1881 to produce coke for the Sloss furnaces, nearby.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.029_0.jpg)
120 coke ovens produce 420,000 tons per year for the local steel industry.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.030_0.jpg)
Coke is produced by baking coal. In steelmaking, when added to the furnace, it separates the oxides from iron ore, purifying the remaining iron.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.031.jpg)
Next to Walter Coke is an even larger coke plant, Alabama Byproducts Corporation (ABC), with 132 ovens, making 730,000 tons per year.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.032.jpg)
There are only a half dozen independent merchant coke plants left in the USA, and this is the largest one.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.033.jpg)
More often coke is manufactured as part of the integrated production of old steel plants, where all parts of production are concentrated in one place.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.034.jpg)
Non-functional remains of old steel and iron sites can be found around Birmingham, such as the Ensley Steel Works, established in 1889 by Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.035.jpg)
Once a large plant employing more than 1,000 people, it has been abandoned since 1984, and is now overgrown.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.036.jpg)
Remains of another former plant can be found at the Wade Sand and Gravel site.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.037.jpg)
Though most of the site has been consumed by a gravel pit, some ruins of the plant are still there.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.038.jpg)
Iron production was started here by the Pioneer Company in 1888.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.039.jpg)
Founded by the Thomas family from Pennsylvania, the housing built for workers was done in a style more common in that state, and less suited to the hot climate of the South.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.040.jpg)
The company town was called Thomas, and the plant was known as the Thomas Works.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.041.jpg)
It was operated for several decades by Republic Steel, with as many as 1,800 employees at its peak.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.042.jpg)
The blast furnace closed in the 1970s, and operations ceased in the 1980s.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.043.jpg)
The excavation of limestone is still going on, and threatens to take over the 500-acre site.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.044.jpg)
Parts of the large coking plant, built in the 1950s, are still there.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.045.jpg)
Over the last 15 years, the owners have operated an informal artist residence program among the ruins.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.046.jpg)
Artistic embellishments can be found here and there.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.047.jpg)
Closer to downtown Birmingham, the Sloss Furnace occupies a small 17-acre area, but looms large in many respects.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.048.jpg)
This iron works dates back to 1881, was modernized in the 1930s, and shut down in 1971.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.049.jpg)
The last owner donated it to the state of Alabama for historical preservation. The state eventually donated it to the city of Birmingham, and it became a museum in 1983.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.050.jpg)
Though some of the plant was removed, two blast furnaces dating back to 1931 and a compressor building from 1902 remain, with their contents and appurtenances.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-08/Birmingham.050A.jpg)
The surfaces of the boilers were cleaned and covered with a mastic, then painted in a rust tone that is repainted every 15 years.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.051.jpg)
These are the only blast furnaces in the nation that are fully (and officially) open to the public.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.052.jpg)
Visitors are permitted to wander all over on their own, even into crawl spaces and up old stairways.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.053.jpg)
Public events are held here, such as demonstrations of iron production, and concerts.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.054.jpg)
Every Halloween the site is turned into a creepy haunted house.
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.055.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.056.jpg)
![Old Steel](https://clui-files.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2022-07/Birmingham.057.jpg)
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