Why America's Last Smokestacks are Disappearing

[@briangarrow448]

I grew up under a smoke stack, near a pulp and paper mill. My father worked there for 37 years. He wouldn’t let any of his sons go to work there because the company didn’t maintain the facilities and he knew they were going to close it down soon. So I got into an apprenticeship program as a boilermaker and built mines, refineries and power plants all over North America, from the Rio Grande to the North Slope. I’m retired now and many of the plants I worked at have closed down.

[@redneckroy8947]

My uncle was a union boilermaker based out of coastal BC. I was going to apprentice when I was 16, but they were shutting down pulp mills like crazy back then, so I became an ISM instead.

[@jKLa]

Well, indeed many such plants have closed and newer US factories tend to be much less poluting. Smokestacks have been declining in the US for decades but many remain, many of them still in active use. They are not even close to having disappeared yet, nor are they likley to soon. My 25 year old cousin worked in a lumber mill btw and the lumber mills of the US Pacific Northwest are still MANY and they still have smokestacks that belch actual smoke!

[@SoporificProdigy]

Thanks for keeping America going enjoy that retirement

[@jamesgarrison6430]

Enjoy your retirement

[@srice8959]

I know this is old, and I’m a Very Proud Local #37 Boilermaker myself! When I went through the Apprenticeship Program was the best thing I ever did. It didn’t just teach me a trade, but also taught me to take great pride in my Craft, Skills, an it also helped me to grow up, and become a better man

[@PhysicsDude55]

I was surprised you didn't mention the Pittsburg WaterFront smoke stacks. Where the city removed a large steel mill to erect a large shopping center complex, but kept a row smoke stacks for aesthetic and historic reasons.

[@producerk8247]

'Burgh with an H. Oh and it was the largest steel mill in AMERICA for a long time.

[@TomJosephi]

This was an interesting video on chimneys and smokestacks. We take them for granted and don't consider what they are there for. You showed a picture of the smokestacks where the Homestead Steelmill near Pittsburgh used to be. It is now a shoppinf center but the smokestacks were retained to remind people of the historic industrial heritage of the area. You might want to do a video of the reuse of powerplants, like the Battersea Power Station near London. There is a power station near where I live that is not used anymore and hopefully it will be preserved for a new use.

[@FixIt1975]

The Battersea Station is the one he mentioned on the Pink Floyd album cover

[@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis]

The reuse of Battersea Power Station was quite clever.

[@joestrike8537]

Another fascinating piece...made me remember the gas storage tanks we used to have around NYC whose storage drum inside a circular girder structure rose and fell depending on the amount of gas stored. (There were a pair of them outside my grandmother's kitchen window.) might be an interesting topic for a future piece...btw, you really should credit some of the researchers or other folks who help you put these videos together.

[@yvonneplant9434]

The ones I remember were the ones next to the NJ turnpike.

[@WarbirdPhoenix]

There's smokestacks preserved in san antonio texas in the form of a old quarry turned into the alamo quarry market. There's a shop called the whole earth provision co where you can actually get inside the stacks and look up. It's pretty cool.

[@politicsuncensored5617]

I grew up at my grandparents home in NC. From the back of their home was our large garden about 2 football fields long & 1 wide. From there the land rose up in the distant about a mile away was a massive textile mill with 2 extremely large smoke stacks at one end. The plant itself had to be a mile long. It was a beautiful sight to see the smoke rising up into the evening sky. All that is gone including my grandparents home that was in our family for 90 years. The older I get I learned you can never go back home. All my childhood homes have been wiped away as if they never existed. PJ

[@DidntSay]

A 600’ x 300’ garden? Dang, I’d call that a small farm. I’m really sorry it’s just memories now. Thank You for sharing.

[@politicsuncensored5617]

@@DidntSay I guess it was. Back then to me it was a great place to grow up. It fed our family including my uncle's and aunt's family all year. You are welcome. PJ

[@Cacowninja]

What wiped the homes away and why?

[@politicsuncensored5617]

@@Cacowninja All of the homes in the area were plowed under for low income apts. that are now riddled with crime. PJ

[@Cacowninja]

@@politicsuncensored5617 Plowed by the government under eminent domain?

[@aprules2]

Growing up in late 80s and early 90s NJ I used to love to look at the smoke stacks off route 80. Now most of them are gone. I forget where it was but there used to be one with a Toy soldier on it. There was a bunch off route 21 and in Jersey City too.

[@DidntSay]

I grew up in NJ also at the same time. I remember the Toy Soldier stack! Cool memory.

[@Jamon1916]

Oldest smokestack/ chimney I know of that is still standing is the "Weymouth Furnace" in Mays Landing, NJ. Built in 1802 to harvest bog iron and make cannons/balls that were latter used in the War of 1812.

[@leonb2637]

While some smokestacks have been repurposed as cell phone antenna towers, many have been torn down as have become structurally unsound over time or as they and their surround structures have been torn down for other purposes. One of the big problems with smokestack fumes has been the dispersal of cancer causing chemicals and substances. Many smokestacks were 100's of feet in the air which could mean dispersing the particulates to 100's of miles away and creating 'acid rain'. Parts of upstate New York, in a particular example the Andoronock Mountains were being badly damaged from smokestack emissions from the Midwest USA and southern Ontario, Canada causing serious damage to forests there. Then massive reduction of smokestack emissions has led a restoration of the quality of the forrests in the Northeastern USA, Southeastern Canada.

[@john2g1]

Hey man stop speaking all this truth it's interfering with my nostalgia.

[@ButterfatFarms]

Captain Obvious right here

[@slypear]

Another great, informative break-down, thank you! I've lived in Beijing for the past 15 years. There used to be many smokestacks here in the centre of the city, mainly for heating by coal, but they have now all but disappeared.

[@phuturephunk]

I would also mention that for the flue gasses we still do have to handle, the development and perfection of scrubbing systems has really helped here. People really don't understand just how terrible industrial waste byproduct handling was in previous eras. Some of the biggest offenders were steel mills, especially batteries furnaces in the Open Hearths. There's a couple pictures towards the end in the Chicago section that show what I'm talking about. That red smoke is not only flue gas, but also all the unrefined byproducts and ore dust from the steel refining process itself. To put this into context, once they started using scrubbers, working the settling pools for the water used in the scrubbing process was absolutely lethal if you were careless. Just concentrated heavy metal laden toxic materials that then have to be solidified and disposed of properly. Now imagine that just flowing 24 hours a day out of 10+ stacks from a half mile long building that never stops working...right next to your neighborhood. Those facilities were also dumping all their process water right into the nearest waterway untreated. All of this was happening right next door to where people lived. Due to certain messaging, people think that the environmental movement was basically some trope about a weed smoking hippy at Woodstock, when it was, in fact, regular folk that were living in the shadow of this and wondering why their kids were getting respiratory ailments, among other things.

[@rogerpenske2411]

Faar out maan

[@gearheadgregwi]

Folks forget about acid rain and smog. Natural gas plants burn cleaner and produce more with less. No huge smokestacks required.

[@MikeBrown-ii3pt]

I grew up on a small farm in Northwest Ohio about 40 miles or so from Toledo. Years ago, the old Jeep plant had 3 or 4 tall stacks. Today, the old plant is gone and the site is being redeveloped but, they left 1 stack. I hope that it stays because it's a piece of history, not only for Toledo but, the entire world. Jeeps built at that plant did a lot to win WW-II, as well as other military operations. They also played a major role in farming, forestry, fire fighting and other things around the entire world.

[@jrthetravelingsalesman6357]

Fred Dibnah knocked em all down, brick by brick. Ahhh ya like that didgya!? RIP Fred, a great man.

[@DLeadVox]

I just love your channel and your plethora of Chicago history and facts. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I look forward to each and every video! DD☮

[@danielcote5841]

Great episode !! Really don’t know how I missed it when it originally showed 🧐

[@asn413]

it would be nice to see more sites preserved and repurposed like the Sloss Furnaces. architectural legacy too.

[@oler777]

I live in Lewiston Idaho and every time we drive into the city the first thing you met with he’s a paper mill that has giant smokestacks coming out of. Some of them are even on fire at times.

[@Fossillarson]

I grew up with ore dock and James river paper mill and old mill with 3 power houses with stacks. Also northern state power plant stacks on lake superior. 😅

[@the_retag]

On fire?

[@DavixDevelop]

7:21 I knew I immediately recognized this scenery, as soon as I saw the image. It's a view of our capitals castle, Ljubljana Castle in Slovenia, taken in the first half of the 20th century from either on a boat on the river Ljubljanica, or taken from the other side of the river, with either way the camera pointed at Ribji trg (Fish square).

[@Smoothfonzo]

You mostly mention power plant related smokestacks, but one interesting story relates to the Vale-Inco Superstack (1250ft) in Sudbury Ontario, Canada. It was built in the 1970's to disperse sulphur and other byproducts of the nickel smelting process, as the process prior to this caused severe ecological damage to the area. It's long been part of our skyline, and only recently has it been decommissioned in favour of two smaller more efficient ones. They've yet to demolish the stack. Interestingly, while being built in 1970, the city suffered its only tornado to date, and the structure swayed heavily in the wind while workers were on top of the construction platform when the storm hit and they all miraculously survived.

[@jameskoryta7197]

Thank you for this very interesting video. The photographs and videos were well done.

[@TracySmith-xy9tq]

The smokestacks on the Pink Floyd album are from the Battersea Power station in England.

[@MelissaFox96]

Got some in Indianapolis, Indiana easily visible from SR37/I69 Northbound.

[@RodgerMudd]

Dilution is the solution to pollution we use to say in industry.

[@jhoncho4x4]

Steeple Jack Fred Dibnar made videos about tearing down chimneys around Britain and hosted an industrial revolution series on BBC. Many of his videos are on YT, chimneys tore down, steeples repaired with ladders on a Land Rover, steam engines, old belt driven machinery at his workshop, steam roller he drives, etc. Fred was an interesting fellow.

[@JasonMcCord-qk3yb]

The three massive smokestacks of the “Portland Cement Company”. Still standing (Located Just North of Tucson, AZ on the West Side of I-10/I-17). And still functioning, as far as I know.

[@rb8049]

Purpose: solution to pollution is dilution.

[@Harley.Davidson]

Born in Detroit. 🎉 Stacks everywhere!!! Hell ....the Packard plant is stll up.....

[@gregatkinson7276]

Simple and quick answer that is accurate.....The US is simply not an industrial nation as we once were and that is largely what made America great. Sad but true.

[@james94582]

Is a bummer to lose the stacks of old America... Not so much the newer modern types

[@jKLa]

Yes, there are PLENTY of newer smokestacks in smaller cities and towns, especially in more conservation state's with lower pollution controls. But the lumber mills of Oregon and Washington and even Northern California still belch actual (bluish white) smoke that often fills the valleys with a smokey pall.

[@wdmm94]

A lot of them were for steam power engines running line shafts in factories at one time I am sure. Another bunch were for metal smelting and refining.

[@joeMW284]

Eh, I see steam coming out of the Mayfair pumping station stack every time it's cold out. They might not be burning coal anymore, but they're definitely using it for something. The pumps are apparently still steam driven... I always assumed they switched to natural gas.

[@mr50sagain55]

Hi Ryan…awesome video!...Great job of transforming such a seemingly mundane topic into this super engaging video!!...My grandmother had an apartment in Evanston (north Chicago lakefront suburb as you know). Each floor had an incinerator to burn trash…just open the metal door and throw it into the open flame…providing a lasting and somewhat terrifying memory for me when visiting as a five year old...BTW…the apartment complex is still there presumably absent the operating incinerator!!!

[@jKLa]

Belching Smokestacks are still common in many smaller cities and towns in the US. In the Pacific Northwest, bluish white smoke from lumber mills often casts a hazy smokey pall over the forested valleys.

[@mohammedcohen]

...we used to have a tall, red & white striped smokestack on our base (Storck Barracks) in Germany (Nov '71 -Jul '74) that was our landmark when returning from the field or a long trip...a few years ago they tore it down - sucked for us old timer vets, even though most of us hadn't been back in years...I remember the old brown brick stacks from my yout'...the 50s & 60s...always landmarks during daily/weekly travels...

[@HM2SGT]

🙄🤦 *People are a trip. They want everything for nothing. They don't want to deal with things themselves, it's always somebody else's job, someone else's problem. Nobody wants those icky power plants, but everybody keeps turning on the lights and charging their phones and watching the television's and enjoying their air conditioners. The power has come from somewhere folks!*

[@nhzxboi]

Very much agree. This is the most naïve and irritating video I've seen this non-expert in anything put out. Generally like most videos. But this one cranks me up.

[@analogidc1394]

So they're complaining about the power plant while telling us we all need to drive EV's. Sounds about right.

[@skeletor9121]

Most stacks now are putting out steam. This guy is an not an expert and misses lots of facts. Without CO2 in the atmosphere we would all be dead.

[@prestonstephens7719]

When my husband cooks,, we know dinner is ready when the smoke detector goes off!!! Sometimes we even order pizza.

[@peterliebezeit5636]

I was wondering if you would reference the Pink Floyd album, and you did not disappoint.

[@charlescrawford7039]

Why America's Last Smokestacks are Disappearing. So is American Industry.

[@samiam5557]

Smokestack Lightning 🎵🎶 Smokestacks were associated with jobs & profits old timers would say. PS: Grand Rapids MI old CITY WATER Plant is a art deco masterpiece.

[@johnhutchison9782]

Right down along Monroe Street. A really fantastic structure. GR guy.👋😊

[@ericcriteser4001]

Thanks for sharing. Detroit deserved a mention.

[@markiangooley]

Some smokestacks in the UK have survived due to use as cellphone towers. Maybe this is happening in the United States too, sometimes.

[@dominicm2175]

Yes, it has. I was going to make a similar comment. When cell phone towers were going up like crazy in the late 90’s and 2000’s, costing structures were utilized first, so most smokestacks had cell antennas placed on them. Now with many of the factories and mills closed, the smoke stacks have remained due to their new purpose.

[@maroon9273]

They use to in America especially in the 80s to 00s. Since the 10s and present day, they're tearing those chimneys down.

[@frequentlycynical642]

What I've been wanting to know for a long time is how they were constructed. All that material accurately placed hundreds of feet in the air..

[@yankeeclipper4326]

They were built from the inside out

[@davidroberts9099]

They were built by hand by men like my grandfather. Masons built them using scaffolding one layer of bricks at a time.

[@Josh-yr7gd]

The two B.F. Goodrich smokestacks in Akron, Ohio are being demolished due to structural issues and harmful chemicals. In 2016 one smokestack was shortened by 100 feet from 195 feet to 95 feet. The other smokestack, also 195 feet, is nearly gone now. Over the last month, two guys in a basket hanging from a crane, have be dismantling it brick by brick. Sad to see the skyline change. Here's a news story about the smokestacks. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqnHn5eqd9N6hqM

[@girldaddividendinvestor]

Yesssss! I lived right by Mayfair, classic Chicago.

[@kevinqualkenbush6114]

Outside of Streator IL there's an Sinclair Oil pumping station that's been abandoned a long time. The interesting thing is that it has a smokestack that looms above the fields out here in Central Illinois.

[@InteloPL]

"has a history of nearly 90 years" Europeans: history, you say...

[@heavenlyblue]

I use to run a Hot Car in a Coke Plant in Follansbee, WV. The Coke would be very hot, and to cool it off, it would be put into like a railroad car (called a Hot Car), and I would take the Hot Car and put it under a Quencher where a lot of water would be dumped onto the Coke to cool it down. The steam would go what looked like miles up into the air where everyone nearby could obviously see it, and this was done about every 15 minutes. The Coke Plant shut down about a year ago I understand.

[@richardcleary9107]

Hershey's sold the old plant with the stipulation the buyer must keep and maintain the old smokestack. I wish Fieldcrest Cannon smokestacks had been saved...they were iconic in Annapolis, NC

[@prestonstephens7719]

Growing up,,, and still somewhat today,,, at night the BURN 🔥 OFF flares from the smoke sack’s/// hauntingly beautiful……. Houston’s ship channel and all of the refineries. Living in Pasadena.,,, with the winds coming predominantly from the south Galveston Island, when they would switch in the late fall from the north….AND THE Smell intensifies,,, All us kids knew what was getting ready to happen… Santa Claus was COMING!!!!

[@tashalynn29]

Cool way to put that.

[@FirstnameLastname-ej4kv]

8:15 is that east of i-80 outside saltlake city?

[@WarbirdPhoenix]

Yup,coal fired power station near the big strip mine pit besides the great salt lake. Drive by it all the time.

[@somerandomvertebrate9262]

What do you mean chimneys weren't attached to homes? Chimneys were a necessity until the advent of central heating. A typical European apartment building built around the turn of the 20th century still had a tile stove in nearly every room, with attendant chimneys, and this is even after radiators had become ubiquitous.

[@Eyesorecrymore]

Well your Brit. You're a little different. Lol just kidding man!

[@lestersegelhorst2776]

You should have included some pics of the 400+ ft tall mammoth stack at the new prairie state power generation and coal mining facility in Southern Illinois west of il rt 153 and south of il rt 15 near lively grove It contains the latest in scrubbing technology. It would have made a great addition to this video

[@ronxlii]

They are gone because we no longer make things here in the US. Everything is now made in China. I miss my factory job. I worry about our countries future because we have become a nation of computer clickers and not a nation that knows how to make things.

[@DidntSay]

There is the sad truth of it!!

[@TheKiiS]

Then open a factory, quit whining

[@ATSFVentaSpurNscaler]

In 2013, I witnessed the demolition of the world's tallest smokestock ever built - at the Asarco copper smelter in El Paso, Texas. This smokestack was constructed of concrete and once stood alongside Interstate 10 as a towering testament to America’s industrial might. Here’s a link to a 3½ minute historical video on KZbin about this monumental smokestack: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5qUXoCOo9qWhq8si=_hnuCcToy_v6VDyf -from Thomas Lincoln Pilling

[@SirChevy]

The small orange and white steam chimneys in New York aren't permanent. They're there only when repair to the steam tunnels are needed.

[@jKLa]

Smokestacks in the US are not rapidly disappearing except in/near major cities. In smaller US cities and many small town's and rural areas they common and not even declining much if at all. That being said only some emit smoke. Others are not in use or just emit steam and/or other fumes/airisols.

[@bigbuck1318]

Chimneys on homes are now disappearing on new homes and remodeled homes because the building codes are now pushing direct-vent furnaces which just lets the exhaust out the side of the house.

[@LoDDEMOCIDE]

Imagine going after a power plant that supplies the city with power. Unreal.

[@fortress1133]

On the east side of Long Island is the North Port power station with 4 huge red and white smoke stacks that are visible from Connecticut 36 mile away. They provided power to about 25% of Long Island and have also been under fire for generating pollution. As alternative fuel sources are sought out, output from the power plant has significantly been reduced and is expected to be at only 2% capacity in the next 10 years.

[@marshmower]

What a waste of a facility that won't last forever. The cost of building something close to the functionality of the old will be the biggest hurdle in the near future.

[@pii-bunni]

A dirty fire (smoke) is a cold fire, or that is to say, not burning right. Chimneys equate to comfort (i.e., ignoring the fire), so Chimneys in homes didn't start appearing until people got more industrial in how they lived (i.e., middle ages, give or take a hundred years or so). People who don't have much going on other than just living their lives wouldn't have seen much need for them.

[@Koohwipx]

I have a friend who works as a stack tester for large chemical manufacturers and ore smelting facilities in the southwest and northwest. He claims that almost all of them burn very dangerous chemicals before and after the testing period and either scrub the stack to hide evidence or take a penalty charge from the government. While there are filters, they often clog up for potentially months on end. Sad to say todays smoke stacks today are not much better than their predecessors. Business is so profitable these companies don’t care about polluting when nobody is watching.

[@stevecallagher9973]

one of the best things about any demolition, especially if the structure is made from brick is the bounty of useful material for landscaping projects.....

[@rogerpenske2411]

At $5 a brick!

[@JayYoung-ro3vu]

Our city has one remaining smokestack and it's in the downtown area. It's part of the powerhouse that powered a now long defunct casket making enterprise. We became "Andy Warholian" famous at the demolition of our decommissioned power plant's smokestack on the city's western edge. We lost a beautiful one with the long defunct company's name a few years ago just west of downtown. Crowell Collier was a printing powerhouse until the mid-1950s when it was closed and consolidated in Chicago, Illinois.

[@rogerpenske2411]

My father’s trucking company was directly across the street from that power station; I think it was 3900 S. Pulaski. Behind us was NI Gas, and the blue flame, which was the car that set the world land speed record out on the salt flats in Bonneville Utah karma was just sitting out in the field. I remember reading about that plant being torn down, and everybody saying that we would send a huge pile of dust all over the neighborhood. Well in typical Chicago fashion, like Meigs field, they blew it up, and stuff flew all over the neighborhood. I have talked to people who worked inside the plant. The wiring and mechanical systems were in very poor condition.

[@rogerpenske2411]

There was an Ovaltine plant in Villa Park Illinois Illinois, much of it was torn down, but most of it was turned into high priced townhomes. They left the smokestack in the courtyard, because it was cool. Eventually it was torn down. It knocked a few peoples garage doors out, But other than that, it wasn’t that big of a deal

[@jamielombardo5292]

I think moving the dirty Industries to the foreign countries like China is very helpful for clean air here in Detroit

[@jKLa]

Many did move to china and elsewhere, but those dirty industries are in many cases still in the US, but mainly in the South and in or near smaller cities and rural areas throughout the country. The lumber mills of US Pacific Northwest still belch significant blue-white smoke to this day.

[@Derpy1969]

Miss the pollution? The mercury? The poisons being spouted into the air? The smog? I don’t. And it’s still here.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Even primitive coal fired electricity generation with no emissions controls is a vast improvement over in-home solid fuel combustion. And once they started installing electrostatic precipitators, the exhaust started gettng really clean.

[@lillian8589]

We don’t use coal fired boilers and the related steam powered equipment in our manufacturing anymore. Maintaining old, out of service stacks is expensive. Our 120 year old water company has the same treatment plants and pump stations, but our last steam driven pump was removed about 20 years ago.

[@majorbuzz]

Great video. Thanks! I lived very near the Crawford power plant in the Little Village during my elementary school days in the 1960s. Traveled past it very often. I always wanted to view the inside but never did. Another interesting, but long gone, item that was on the west side of Pulaski Road across from the power plant were the gasometers. I'm fairly certain that they held a gas byproduct produced by the plant. It would be burned as needed at the plant. As a child, I wondered why they would go up and down. There are very few gasometers left in the world.

[@skribblyscramiento539]

Cleveland still has some smoke stacks left.

[@RailPreserver2K]

Theres some mills in monroe that have been good at saving there stacks, ive photographed the mills a few times.

[@tHebUm18]

Surprised you literally mentioned the Pink Floyd album cover containing the Battersea generating station without mentioning the preservation efforts (including iconic smokestacks) in repurposing it into a mall and residential area.

[@jbrhel]

I grew up near a power plant in New York in the 1960s. Years later I worked there on the coal crew. Until NYSEG installed precipitators in the early 70s my Mom had soot on the laundry almost daily.

[@marshmower]

We had a brick one from a downtown power plant from my whole life and they decided the university needed one more apartment there. 😢

[@anthonymorandi9005]

Haha, seeing that metra billboard on i90 right next to that stack. It just nicks you as you sit in traffic going into the city

[@jpmnky]

My hometown had one up until about ten years ago.

[@Matthew.images]

Our smoke stacks, now steam stacks used to burn coal. But Eastman Kodak Business Park stopped using coal 100% at the park a few years ago. Theres so many around rochester but none get used much aside from EKBP.

[@jamesleyda365]

Spaghetti factory Spokane WA..... Awesome building

[@ericharrison619]

Who would have known that turning a smokestack into dust would create...dust? Amazing!

[@Eyesorecrymore]

Take a drink every time he said "smokestack". 😂

[@PhillinFreeTime]

Can’t believe that the Willy’s overland (national historical landmark) wasn’t mentioned. Sadly they tore the building down and left only the smoke stacks considering the history Now THERES an idea for you, do a story on the old Willy’s overland factory. If you don’t know the story I highly recommend you look into it. They were at one time the second largest automaker in the country, they’re also responsible for developing (at least partly) the Ww2 Jeep that we all know and love. Please consider this, you won’t be disappointed.

[@juanjames5789]

Do one on Chicago Dan rayen high way

[@marchwind1000]

Tom so I was just to see in those high towers cause both my grandfather's my great-grandfather's my foster dad and my ex-husband all worked at the Mills now there's nothing left cause I think there's only one mill in down there and before they used to be about 10 or 12

[@jhonsiders6077]

The US used to have the heavy industry that supplied the world . We let regulations and the moving offshore of manufacturing destroy it . A good example of this is Gary Indiana USS steel employed tens of thousands of people .Now all gone but one plant . environmental regulations was the biggest killer of that town to be in compliance the cost outweighed the profits same with Pittsburgh and Youngstown so they just closed them . Detroit once the auto capital of the world fell the need for steel dropped and more mills closed as imports arrived at lower cost . We let this happen and now if we needed this industry we would be sunk !

[@tibbers3755]

Thats the fault of greedy CEOs and higher management. They can go move elsewhere while the workers had to stay and breathe in that shit

[@ColKorn1965]

Fred Dibnah would be saddened. We still have one in my county that belo gs to a former cotton mill. The mill was powered by steam engines when first built.

[@ScoutSniper3124]

Smokestacks represent Industry. It is far more PROFITABLE to those at the TOP (aka. Elites) to conduct Industry in NEAR SLAVE WAGE countries (China, Taiwan, Vietnam, India, etc...). NOT to "Help the Planet" or "Combat Global Warming", but to FATTEN THEIR BANK ACCOUNTS. There are PLENTY of smokestacks in China. However, the UGLY TRUTH IS... INDUSTRY PROVIDES JOBS (Decent Paying Middle Class Jobs, Career Jobs) ... which since the days of NAFTA (moving those jobs to Mexico, before they went to China) have been GUTTED from America... for PROFITS elsewhere. And Americans... ALL AMERICANS**... suffer as a consequence. ** NOT counting Elites, who for the most part don't even consider themselves "American" especially when it comes to Industry.

[@glamcityrockerofficial]

I don't understand how they could build them in those days without the giant cranes we have now how did they get all those bricks up so high

[@eskieguy9355]

I think you hinted at this, I think, as long as they can be safely maintained, that we should keep the smokestacks, maybe put up historical plaques, to remind ourselves of where we've been. Like the children who don't know what a cow is, we stand the chance of forgetting our history. BTW, 'forgot to tell them' about the pollution from knocking down the smokestacks, or people wouldn't shut up long enough to learn the consequences. The first thing I thought of was the massive dust clouds, with decades of soot, that always occur when one of these falls.

[@neilpuckett359]

Carbon dioxide is a pollutant?

[@skeletor9121]

According to the EPA. Classified it as a poison gas back in the early 2000’s. Go figure. Without any CO2 in the atmosphere we would all be dead.

[@twofeathersnmi]

Everyone forgets about Detroit! I guess we don't count in the grand picture of this country!

[@opraiderman904]

Who else does this video remind of Fred Dibnah?

[@phlodel]

some residents of Morro Bay, California want to keep their 3 big smokestacks.

[@the_mississippian_railfan]

Buddy im from Pittsburgh go there man we aint got no shortage yinzers have em up the mon down to mkeesport and back

[@HM2SGT]

19:48 The only way to demolish without making a mess is to spend ungodly amount of money! You can have it cheap, or you can have it clean... ain't no way to do both! Anybody that thought that anything could be imploded without a dust cloud is ignorant and clueless.

[@J.A.Smith2397]

You said it buddy "

[@AsaTrenchard1865]

The original purpose of Play Doh was to rub on wallpaper to remove smoke residue.

[@Thefutureooksbight]

Another great story of history the big smokestack off of the Kennedy. I saw that growing up every Saturday when we were drive down to Irving Park Avenue to the old neighborhood. I’m glad they didn’t tear down.

[@glenlongstreet7]

The real problem is that we don't ask permission from the folks who know what they are talking about.

[@rustyudder]

They need to redo that powerplant with proper cooling Tower design. They can just change the location and turn that into a sub station. They just don't wanna drop millions into a clean method. They just want to force others to do it.

[@randyedwards3244]

Another reason for smokestacks is industry. Actually, this was what I thought your were going tp discuss. As a child I remember all the factories in our city in southern Ontario. We had so many smokestacks emitting their greyish white smoke, it was seen as a sign of progress. Now the smokestacks are long gone, along with the jobs. Now North America relies on China for purchasing goods readily made here.

[@chrisk5437]

You didn’t cover the massive smokestack in Salt Lake (Kennecott smelting stack / largest W of the Mississippi) or the Anaconda stack in MT (tallest brick stack), or the 3rd tallest which is the Homer City power stack… I saw some photos but a mention would be nice…

[@marshmower]

Many of the brown smoke videos are from 40+ years ago or overseas.