Wharton furnaces after closure.

Left to Right:

1. The High Line was two elevated railtracks on which hopper cars dumped their iron ore, limestone, and coke in to the stock bins.

2. The lattice structure in the background is the ore bridge crane, working the ore yard where the materials were stored in bulk.

3. The two bottle shaped structures were the dustcatchers. They were emptied periodically in to rail cars.

4. "B" furnace is the nearest, the diagonal pipes are the downcomers collecting the dust laden gas. Bleeder pipe pointing up.

5. The row of stoves is partially obscured by the blast furnace.

6. Two smoke stacks for exhausting combustion gases with "A" furnace visible between.

7. In front of "B" furnace is the cast house, the business end of the process where the molten slag and iron was tapped.

8. Boiler house between the smoke stacks.

9. Partially overgrown Railroad tracks in the yard .

This is the viewpoint from the opposite perspective. So now "A" furnace is the nearer.

It is today quite difficult to reconcile that the plant was modernised around 1920 and within 4 years it was closed, and demolished around 1933. However, it wasn't a fate unique to the Wharton furnaces nor to American Iron and Steelworks. Similar circumstances prevailed in the UK for example, and even as late as the 1970s, huge investments were made in plant which was shut down before coming on stream. Fortunes were made and lost in the wink of an eye in the Iron and Steel industry.