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Pittsburgh Local Illuminates Steel Landmark

July 17, 2008

Barges on the three rivers that gave birth to America’s steel city make their passage in the shadows of hundreds of Pittsburgh bridges. None is more symbolic of the city’s former industrial might than the Hot Metal Bridge.

In June, the historic bridge received new lights, installed by members of Pittsburgh Local 5 and funded by a grant secured, in part, through the local’s support of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. Gov. Ed Rendell and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl joined IBEW members in a ceremony held at the Steelworkers’ Monument on the south bank of the Monongahela River, to mark the bridge’s lighting.

During World War II, the Hot Metal Bridge, built in 1900 to replace an earlier span, was the nation’s strongest, highest-priority bridge because of its part in the war effort, says Local 5 Business Manager Mike Dunleavy. An Army company was assigned to protect the structure which carried crucibles of 3,000-degree molten steel from the north shore of Jones & Laughlin’s Pittsburgh Works to rolling mills in the South Side plant. 

The mill shut down in the 1980’s and the bridge was opened to vehicular traffic for the first time in 2000 and to bicycles and pedestrians in 2007. An adjacent former steel mill bridge was rehabilitated for $10 million as part of the Great Allegheny Passage biking, hiking and walking trail.

Local 5 members working for Miller Electric installed LED tubular lighting in red, yellow and orange at either end of the bridge to replicate the colors of the hot steel slabs that crossed it. 

Dunleavy is hopeful that additional grant funding will be available in the future for more lights to celebrate the drama of the Hot Metal Bridge. Local 5 members, working out of their union hall near the structure’s southern end—where the steel mill once stood—also provided lighting for the Smithfield Street Bridge and the Roberto Clemente Bridges. Those spans lead to Heinz Field and PNC Park, home of the pro-football Steelers and the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
           
            Home page photo used under a Creative Commons license from flickr.com user bananarchist.