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🌊 Roca Visits Steel Country
Plus: How the decline of the world’s most valuable company could decide the election
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Andrew Carnegie would turn in his grave if he saw Braddock, Pennsylvania, today.
Once the center of the American steel industry, Braddock is now a near ghost town, where most homes are vacant, churches are crumbling, and businesses are practically non-existent.
And yet: This town, Braddock, is at the center of one of the fiercest political battles of the 2024 election.
In summer 1872, Andrew Carnegie went to Europe to learn about the Bessemer process, a method to affordably mass produce steel. Upon returning to the US, he lined up partners to open his own Bessemer process steel plant. He did so in 1875 in Braddock, seven miles down the Monongahela River from downtown Pittsburgh.
As the plant grew, so did Braddock – and Carnegie’s investment. In Braddock, Carnegie opened the first of his 1,700 public libraries, public baths, an indoor basketball court, and a 964-seat music hall.
Immigrants flocked to the city, growing its population from 1,300 to 21,000 between 1870 and 1920.
Today, its population is back where it was around 1871: 1,721.
In the town, building after building – including dozens of empty churches and hundreds of abandoned homes – sit vacant.
Braddock’s decline was about more than steel: It was ravaged by the crack-cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, a financial crisis, and “white flight.” Yet while steel has declined in Braddock, it hasn’t ended: The steel plant that opened in 1875 is still going, part of US Steel.
But in December, US Steel agreed to sell itself to a Japanese company. Both Trump and Harris have since come out against the deal. So who do Braddock’s people want to win the 2024 election? We visited to find out.
The rest of this story contains our on-the-ground coverage from Pennsylvania. It’s available only for premium subscribers. Subscribe to get full access here. Once you do so, you can find all our full articles here.
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