The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by

Bernard Lauth Bernard Lauth (August 23, 1820 in Alsace, France – June 25, 1894) he founded the American Iron Works in 1850, and formed a partnership with B.F. Jones in 1851. In 1854, Lauth retired from the steel firm, selling his partnership to James H. L ...

and Benjamin Franklin Jones, a few miles (c 4 km) south of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

along the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-c ...

. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James Laughlin. The first firm to bear the name of Jones and Laughlin was organized in 1861 and headquartered at Third & Ross in downtown Pittsburgh.

History

Originally producing only iron, the enterprise began the production of

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistan ...

in 1886. Over the ensuing 60 years, the company expanded its facilities and its operations along both sides of the

on the South Side of

and along the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

at Aliquippa. The Hot Metal Bridge across the Monongahela River was built to connect Eliza blast furnaces (making pig iron) on the Hazelwood side of the river with the open hearth furnaces (making steel) on the south side of the river. In 1905, a new plant was begun at Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. The company also owned coal mines in western Pennsylvania in its early days, including some reached by an incline in Pittsburgh's South Side which connected to the railroad over the bridge adjacent to the Hot Metal Bridge. Other mines were along the nearby

Becks Run Becks Run is a tributary of the Monongahela River. As an urban stream, it is heavily polluted, receiving combined sewer outflow from Carrick (Pittsburgh) and Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania. There is a waterfall on a tributary, just downstream from ...

, also directly connected by

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

. The incline and mines were gone before 1900, but mining continued in Pennsylvania towns such as Vestaburg and elsewhere. On January 9, 1907, an explosion at the Eliza Furnace plant in the Soho district of Pittsburgh killed 13. The coroner found that workers had left the gang in the preceding few days, fearing for their safety. The former Otis Steel company along the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was purchased in 1942, and then in the mid-1960s a finishing plant was constructed in Hennepin, Illinois. Similar explosions to the 1907 incident took place in April and May 1942, the second one resulting in two fatalities. J & L Steel (known to its employees as simply "J & L", sometimes pronounced "jane ell") provided the most able competition to the Carnegie Steel Company in the vicinity of

. J & L also had

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a ...

mills in other cities such as Los Angeles in the late 1940s. Ling-Temco-Vought, Inc. of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

offered to purchase 63 percent of J & L Steel on May 10, 1968. An agreement was reached on May 14, and the purchase was completed for approximately $428.5 million ($ today) by June 1968. It took full control of the company in 1974. As a result of the Steel Crisis and the 1973 Recession, the J & L mill in Los Angeles closed. In 1978, J & L Steel (as a subsidiary of LTV) acquired Youngstown Sheet and Tube. In 1981, J & L Steel bought a stainless steel mill from McLouth Steel Products in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, which was probably an attempt to try to get closer to the auto market. By the 1980s the LTV Conglomerate began to go into decline. In 1984, J & L was merged with Republic Steel and the name of Jones and Laughlin completely disappeared.

J&L Coal Incline

The ''J&L Coal Incline'' was a incline in

, Pennsylvania connecting a coal mine to the J&L iron making facility. It ran from Josephine Street, between South 29th street and South 30th Street on the lower end to Sumner Street on its upper end. It was supplied with coal from the ''American Mine'', opened in 1854.

From hot strip to mixed-use development

Dismantling of the buildings which housed J & L Steel produced an upsurge of building on the tracts of land where the buildings had stood. By September 2005, numerous new structures had been erected on both sides of the

. The Pittsburgh Technology Center now stands on the north side of the Monongahela River where the blast furnaces once stood and the

SouthSide Works SouthSide Works is an open-air retail, office, entertainment, and residential complex (often referred to as a lifestyle center) located on the South Side of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. and just across the Monongahela River from ...

, a commercial and residential development, stands on the south side where milling operations occurred. The Hot Metal Bridge has been converted into a road bridge and a pedestrian/bike bridge (which forms part of the Great Allegheny Passage). On what was once Hazelwood Works of the J & L operations, another development, Hazelwood Green is now a 178-acre mixed-use riverfront redevelopment site. Hazelwood Green was purchased in 2002 by Almono LP and was officially opened to the public in April 2019 with the public dedication of new roads - Hazelwood Avenue and Blair Street extensions - through the site. Mill 19, the last remaining structure from the Hazelwood Plant, is being refurbished to serve as a mixed use development including a robotics lab run by Carnegie Mellon University.

Historic sites

Jones & Laughlin Steel Co. is a builder of record for a number of bridges and other structures that are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Works include: * Big Blue River Bridge, Twp. Rd. over Big Blue R., 1 mi. SE of Surprise,

Surprise, Nebraska Surprise is a village in southwestern"General Highwa ...

(Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.), NRHP-listed * Brewer Bridge, Co. Rd. over the Niobrara R., 14.7 mi. E of Valentine, Valentine, Nebraska (Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.), NRHP-listed * Hill Annex Mine, off US 169, Calumet, Minnesota (Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.), NRHP-listed * Nine Bridges Bridge, private rd. over Middle Channel of the Platte R., 3.9 mi. N of Doniphan, Doniphan, Nebraska (Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.), NRHP-listed * Prairie Dog Creek Bridge, Twp. Rd. over Prairie Dog Cr., 8.5 mi. S and 1 mi. W of Orleans. Orleans, Nebraska (Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.), NRHP-listed * Southwest Fifth St. Bridge, SW Fifth St. over Raccoon R..

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...

(Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., Killmar), NRHP-listed *Turkey Creek Bridge, Co. Rd. over Turkey Cr., 2 mi. W and 1 mi. S of Ragan,

Ragan, Nebraska Ragan is a village in Harlan County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 38 at the 2010 census. History Ragan was platted in 1886 when the St. Joseph and Grand Island Railway was extended to that point. It was named after a railroad-co ...

(Jones & Laughlin Steel Co.), NRHP-listed

References

External links

Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Photographs, 1864-1953 online collection
MSP #33 from the Library & Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Finding aid to the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Historical Records
at the Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Finding aid to the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Pittsburgh Works Earnings Records
at the Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Finding aid to the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Records
at the Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Finding aid to the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Pittsburgh Works Records
at the Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Finding aid to the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Aliquippa Works Records
at the Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones And Laughlin Steel Company Rolling mills Steel companies of the United States Railway inclines in Pittsburgh Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania Bridge companies Articles containing video clips 1852 establishments in Pennsylvania Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1852 American companies established in 1852 Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pittsburgh