Blast furnaces breathing steam and smoke on a cold day at the US Steel Gary Works facility.

US Steel Blast furnaces putting in work on a cold day.
music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
• Free Streaming Music -...

[@jsplicer9]

Once the pride of American industry. This plant has no doubt provided steel for countless creations over the decades.

[@libertyforever836]

1972. I worked those docks in a Michigan front end loader, a D9 Caterpillar dozer and had my small front end loader picked up and lowered into the ore ships to pull the iron ore from the inner corners of the hold into the center of the hatch so the unloaders could reach it. “Old school” unloading before the advent of self unloading ships. And yes, I walked the deck of the Edmund Fitzgerald more than once. Oh yeah, I remember.

[@jeffthomas6818]

Heartbeat of the Rust Belt. 💪🏻 🇺🇸

[@philvaclavik6890]

You folks should have seen this place when it was really rocking and rolling. Five different product lines were produced there.

[@jeffthomas6818]

Sounds like you had a great career there. 👍🏻

[@paprna]

I think you have Czechoslovak roots.

[@philvaclavik6890]

@@paprna yes I do

[@philvaclavik6890]

@@jeffthomas6818 not really

[@jivepatrol6833]

Great video. I reviewed the archive of Indiana University and they have photos of the plant being built back in about 1903-06. They had to dig that channel out and make a turning basin for the ships carrying iron ore, limestone and coal. Thank You!

[@WhatISee1]

Very cool! I didn't think it was that old.

[@bobbybob3865]

My dad worked in that mill for 41 years, 34 years on the east side of the channel. One of the many reasons why the mill became less profitable was that, when the level of Lake Michigan changed, ore boats could no longer come in, turn around, and go out by themselves. Tug boats would be needed to guide the ore boats in and out. This resulted in extra expense and slower movement of ore.

[@bobbybob3865]

@@WhatISee1 Not much modernization was done at Gary Works over the years so that other countries--Germany, Japan, and Indonesia, among others--could eventually ship steel, higher quality steel, to the United States than it could be produced here.

[@jivepatrol6833]

@@bobbybob3865 - Wow your Dad had a long career! I'm sure it was hard work and he probably had a great many stories. Being a Steelworker is a tough job but very honest work. Kind regards

[@bobbybob3865]

@@jivepatrol6833 Kind regards to YOU. I'll blab here a little. Bear with me......One of the things I remember well was the time my older sister, older brother, and I were begging him not to go to work one night when he was really sick. He just said, "Somebody's got to be there." He just wasn't the kind of person to complain about much of anything. I think partly he was trying to protect his job--and his income, which was very important to our family, but also to do his part to keep the furnaces going and the steel being made. (The mill never closed and the furnaces and ovens and rolling mills worked 24/7. At the "ore docks" the ore boats were unloaded and some iron ore was piled up along both sides of the inlet/channel in the warm months to be used during the colder weather when ore boats (never "ships") couldn't come down from Duluth, Minnesota through the ice on Lake Michigan. (I grew up maybe a block north of one the four shorelines created at the southern end of Lake Michigan by the glaciers that gouged out the Great Lakes less than 20,000 years ago. Lakes are young. Mountains are old. The Rocky Mountains are still going up.) My dad was a little guy, one of ten children of a farmer in a very small town in Southern Indiana who came to Gary with his mother and a brother to find a new home after my dad's father had died of cancer. (I was taller and heavier than my dad when I was 13.) Being little was probably an asset to my dad in some ways. It probably taught him to be tactful in working with people. One of the workers my dad supervised was the brother of Sonny Liston, the pro boxer. One time a steelworker brought a gun to work and shot and killed my dad's boss, who was a very big and overbearing sort of person. Then the worker just sat down and waited for the police to haul him away. My dad once told me about being hired at U.S. Steel out of the "bullpen" of possible employees. (I've kept a diary since was 12--I'm 78 now--and I've written down as much as I can remember about a lot of things and certainly about growing up in Gary and my dad's stories about the mill and about my own experiences as a steelworker there. My older brother came very close to having a leg chopped off by a sheet of steel that shifted in a railroad car while he was riding on the edge of that car. My brother had moved his leg just in time before the sheet of steel slid toward him. Eventually my brother was fired after failing several days to go to work and after two "last warnings"--one more last warning than most people get, but my brother was probably a good worker. He had just become unable to go to work. He had a fairly clean and safe job in one of the rolling mills. (While working as a truck driver in my fourth and last summer in the mill, I saw and talked to my dad and brother at their work places. I saw recently in one of my diaries that one of my brother's closest friends had recently been killed in an accident while working as a supervisor in the mill. I had forgotten about that. My brother's thoughts about this at the time may have been what finally made him unable to continue going to work. Also, my brother had a poor marriage although not an awful one, but his wife wasn't very supportive in helping him to finish his college degree in business and work somewhere else doing something else and was also a poor excuse for a mother for their three children That's another story and unrelated to the steel mill. If you get this far, I apologize for writing so much, but if you get this far, maybe you WANTED to hear about my experiences in the mill. (Whatever it's worth, I used to blow ire ore dust out of my nose after a work shift even when I wasn't working in the dirtier parts of the mill. Also, even after my dad's years in the mill, he was still driving a car--in a small town in the Southern California desert--at the age of 88. A heart attack finally got him.) I'll quit.

[@mikeyc.1979]

the infrastructure of large steel mills is amazing.

[@MaxCruise73]

The steam emanating to the right (north) of the #4 Blast Furnace at the 34 second mark is from the Slag Pit. Water is being sprayed on the slag when the Blast Furnace is being tapped. #6 Blast Furnace Slag Pit can also be seen at the 1:23 mark.

[@20PINKluvr]

I flew by this place on a plane descending to Chicago midway from Albany and I noticed that gary and Chicago are right next to each other

[@mikeyc.1979]

not exactly, hammond, east chicago, and whiting are inbetween gary and chicago. you may have seen what used to be Inland Steel in East Chicago.

[@Steven_Williams]

Awesome! Always wondered what Gary Works looked like beyond the Toll Road.

[@bobbybob3865]

I was a laborer at Gary Works for four summers while in college, the first three summers in a locomotive maintenance and repair shop not far inside the Broadway main gate (about a quarter mile from the shop where Michael Jackson's father worked as an overhead crane operator). Until I was a truck driver my last summer and drove 4, 5, 10, and 18-speed trucks all over the mill property, I didn't really understand that my earlier job had been more than a half mile south of Lake Michigan. The mill goes maybe five miles east and west along the southern end of the lake and is a mile or more in size to the north and south, depending on the curve of the south end of Lake Michigan. Inside the mill, there were a lot of furnaces, ovens, and shops in the middle of the east-west part, rolling mills and other shops on the west side, and bare land or places to dump different kinds of reusable scrap or waste in the east part.

[@lisk3822]

All that red ore!

[@juliojulio9330]

Love the ore docks. They are massive. A big freighter unloads ore and there is plenty of space for barges to load slabs or coils. A slip the size of a mighty river

[@Jeff-Lawrence]

I know this is a couple years old, but. Great cinematography, the music really add to it.

[@WhatISee1]

Thanks Jeff. Much appreciated.

[@kevinbraden9445]

Don’t forget mother INLAND STEEL 💪🏻

[@trainsmachineryldegmtrains3509]

Great video! Nice big factory! MEGA LIKE

[@AluminumOxide]

Love the 80s rock music!

[@RonStanek]

Fantastic Areial Views!!! Would be nice to see, with an ore boat, docked in the channel. Just don't see these views everyday. Drones change the perspective. Good Job 👍

[@azimuth4850]

Awesome

[@billjoang]

Impressive

[@Infernal_Elf]

Such an amazing big industrial area. If u drag a line through all the steel mill areas in Gary it amounts to 19km. and the square footage is much bigger

[@Goldfire-tt3dv]

I live in Duisburg, Germany. I can see two active blast furnaces from my balcony, and there is an older, inactive plant within walking distance from my home that was converted into a public park with free access to one of the blast furnaces there. I've also been to Völklingen Ironworks in the Southern part of Germany, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Truly an impressive sight. For those of you in the US, try to visit Bethlehem Steel or the Carrie Furnaces in Pennsylvania, or Sloss Furnace in Alabama. Especially at night with colorful illumination. What's up with the fourth blast furnace, the one that's a little separate from the other three? Is that one inactive? And why does the third one appear to have no fewer than five Cowper stoves? The standard number at least in Germany is three per blast furnace for the purpose of uninterrupted operation (one is actively blowing hot wind into the blast furnace, one is cooling down following an operation cycle, and the third one is heating up again), with a fourth one sometimes used as a reserve. But five? Why?

[@WhatISee1]

I hope someone will have answers to your questions. I don't know anything about blast furnaces. I do however have a video of the Bethlehem Steel furnaces on my channel if you're interested. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jajZgYWjrtyCndk

[@Goldfire-tt3dv]

@@WhatISee1 Not my channel, but I've found some drone footage from the aforementioned site in my city that's now a public park: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4jJlqqih656pLM kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWGtmZiFp9p9pJI kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYrCqniQqamsobs

[@jerrycurtis7097]

You're looking at the largest integrated Steel Production facility in the Western Hemisphere, certainly in North America. Gary Works is bigger than all of them.

[@bryanhoward1587]

Lake Michigan is the north side of the steel mill. So looking from the south you see furnace 4,6,8 and 14 is the one at the north by it self. 14 was the last one built. The last time I worked there I came across a old map and there were 9 furnaces in that line before 14 was built. I don't know when they were taken down. This video was posted 9 months ago and I believe furnace 14 was down for maintenance or an outage as we call it. You should look up 7 blast furnace at Inland steel which is to the west in East Chicago. I think it's still the biggest furnace in North America.

[@Goldfire-tt3dv]

@@bryanhoward1587 Meanwhile, in my hometown of Duisburg, I have both the most modern blast furnace in Germany (it's one of the ones I can see out of my window) and and the largest one (which is a few miles further north), located in an adjacent part of the same overall site that's separated by a public road). Look up "Hochofen 8 Duisburg" (it's the one with the red outer brick walls and was built in 2008; the one right next to it is No. 9, which has been refurbished and modernized about a decade ago) and "Hochofen 1 Schwelgern". Those outer brick walls appear to be unique to the blast furnaces in my city, I assume that's an environmental requirement by the city administration.

[@sird2333]

Wow.

[@MaxCruise73]

At the 2:49 mark, a front-end loader can be seen digging out the Slag Pit for #8 Blast Furnace.

[@RailFanRob]

Love industry videos especially industry from the United States. Thanks for sharing 👍👍. Can you do a video without music so we can hear the sounds of it working?

[@WhatISee1]

Hi Rob, Unfortunately I can't get audio from the drone. The noise from the propellers is too loud.

[@johnwelch8428]

What year was this video made?A great one.

[@WhatISee1]

2022

[@floivanus]

I see a truck that was started to be run in late 2021 in this video. One I run 😂

[@mosesmarlboro5401]

Just imagine, millions upon millions of American men used to be able to earn an honest living for themselves and their families in places like this; doing work that really mattered. Now we've got nothing.

[@RobertWilliams-mk8pl]

These towns worked. The people were honest and hard working. The short sightedness and corrupt nature of politicians from "both" sides of the isle facilitated through legislation and still foster without legislation the selling off of the country. Not just steel but pharmaceuticals, chemical, aerospace, lumber, textiles you name it. When the cities and regions decay and economic blight, despair, drug use and crime fill the vacuum the politicians change their shape and color. They choose sides to point the finger of blame on the people or public for whom they ardently campaigned promising to serve...at least in word. Today politicians have either come from such an elite segment of the society or they are just genuinely ignorant or both that they have no idea of what is required for the foundation of a strong independent country. The business owners and directors only have their own interest in mind. The biggest scapegoat for selling off industries to other parts of the world is the burden of regulations or environmental issues. It's only about greed. The country contributed to the development of these industries only to have them pull out in the middle of the night.

[@anonosaurus4517]

Don't forget that there are elites in this country that HATE heavy manufacturing like this, because it requires extraction of minerals and ore, and requires immense energy that only fossil fuels or nuclear can deliver. They are the green zealots fashionable since the 1970's who in the ideology of their green religion have done a great deal to drive production like this out of business or overseas.

[@seanbaskett5506]

I'm confused. Was that a video of the mayor's office downtown, or a steel plant? It's Gary, so it's hard to tell.

[@stomper12000]

This is better than watching idiot women showing too much skin; here, you can get all the smoke and action you want. Nothing beats the awesome might and power of some real work by hard working men and women who handle our business like a boss's! Too much won't exist if it were not for such plants....keep on churning out the action boys!

[@oggarage9388]

Its all angry and mean 👀🤜

[@dwightkline3991]

It's not as Fun as they make it out to be

[@MaxCruise73]

To What I See, I will provide this caution. When the burden inside the vessel shifts and there is too much pressure, the bleeder valves will open up. Valves are clearly seen at the 5:02 mark. Could easily knock your drone out of the sky. Example kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKemhIFprrRmi7s Example kzbin.infoPa3DsbwpgF8

[@WhatISee1]

That would be a bad day. Thanks for the heads up.

[@MaxCruise73]

@@WhatISee1 you are very welcome. While I enjoy seeing the overhead shots, would hate to see your drone "shot down in flames."

[@Mike-zx9mx]

Just retired wish I never left 😊 work right there in South Iron

[@WhatISee1]

That's awesome!

[@tiouip]

Hilarious macho-industrial muzak!🤣