Lukens Steel Mill - Coatsville, PA
On Saturday, 11/06/21, I drove 190 miles northeast of Front Royal in my new (used) Honda CRV (which performed flawlessly). Destination: the oldest steel mill in commission within the US. Parts of the mill have been abandoned, and these were the buildings that the DCUE (DC Urban Explorers) Meetup group photographed.
Dating back to 1810, Lukens Steel Mill has been on the forefront of innovation within the steel industry, making it among the most profitable mills in the country. Its lists of “firsts” is quite extensive and impressive - for example, in 1818 Lukens produced the iron for the first iron-hulled ship in the US. In 1825, after inheriting the company from her husband, Rebecca Lukens became the first woman in the iron industry and the first woman CEO of an industrial company. She became an icon of the company for saving it from bankruptcy by garnering the majority market share of boilerplate manufacture in the US. Lukens was also a major producer of steel for the military during the First and Second World Wars.
More recently - and possibly more notably - the mill produced the steel “trees” (trident-shaped steel trusses) that formed the exterior frame of the World Trade Center towers in New York City (see below). After 9/11, some mangled remnants of those “trees” were brought home to the Coatsville mill that produced them. Some of the remains are housed in one of the abandoned buildings, but one piece was erected in front of the mill as a memorial (see final photos at bottom).
The shapes, patterns, and lighting of some of the mechanical artifacts in the disused motor house and decrepit factory building brought me back to my photographic roots in that they lent themselves so well to old-school, high-contrast black and white images. I processed many of the photos below with an eye toward creating a dark, brooding, weathered look that took me back to the days of developing my own photos in my basement darkroom.
I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did creating them.
The steel “trees” of the facade of the World Trade Center buildings - more on those below
Image attribution: By Rainer Halama - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1784159
Detail of electrical motor in the motor house
Electric motor
Electric motor
Electrical/switching panel in the motor house
Detail of electric motor
Electric motor with some odd-looking bands that could be chains or some sort locks/fasteners - not sure of their purpose but they were visually intriguing
The detail and shapes of these electric motors was enthralling - I just couldn’t get enough of them
A wide view of the motor house from the top of a staircase looking down on the floor
Not sure what this rack contains - a series of circuits or maybe fuses? I liked how the window behind the installation caused some bright “flares” at the top of the image, so I purposely over-exposed the photo in post to enhance that look.
A visually mesmerizing set of wiring harnesses found on the back of an exposed control panel
The minimalist Zen of “round”
More control panel wiring to draw the eye into and through the frame
The structure and shape of that “figure eight” in the center dial gave me a strong sense of pareidolia - sort of looks like the face of a retro robot
I think this may be an old diver’s helmet (the mill was involved in several underwater constructions and installations, like the “Guppy” submersible below and the Sonarsphere at the bottom )
This submersible - nicknamed “Guppy” - accommodated two occupants (just barely, I would imagine)
One of three old emergency vehicles stored in the motor house, possibly made of sheet steel produced by the mill
Detail of a siren on one of the fire engines (you can see the reflection of the ambulance from the previous photo on the right)
A discarded sign located at the entrance to the disused factory building
Wide shot of one half of the factory floor
The factory roof was leaking and rivulets of water were dripping down, forming puddles on the earthen floor. The water droplets - frozen in time by a fast shutter - were lit from behind by the light streaming in from the upper windows.
Reflection in a puddle formed by the leaky roof
I’m attracted both by the complementary colors, and the juxtaposed/conflicting shapes in this image (the name “Anaconda” for the cabling is also quite apt)
Line and shape encoded in shadow-play
The early afternoon sun streaming in through the upper factory windows made for some wonderful popping colors and stark outlines
The quiet chaos of industrial decrepitude
The interplay of opposing gear grooves
“Shooting through”
“Vertigo”
“Heavy Lifting”
A fellow photographer entranced by all the lines, shapes, and shadows around us
Another photographer crouching for the low-angle shot
A bank of old-school circuitry radiant with angled sunlight
A view of the factory roof from one of the upper gantries
Sunlight pouring in through a row of broken window panes
Detail of a heavy repair-weld on the front of a locomotive
“Loco Motive”
A segment of the World Trade Center “trees” lying on the factory floor
Forgive me, but I feel the need to vent a little here….
U bend, I bend, we all bend
Diagonals and verticals - it’s just that simple
Triple fuses in 480 volts - thanks, Westinghouse!
Sections of steel girders from the World Trade Center towers
Some more of the World Trade Center steel “trees”
The World Trade Center “trees” from across the factory floor
The truncated “trees” up close
Another photographer shooting what looks like a corrugated-steel shed perched on its roof in the middle of the factory floor - maybe it fell from structure above at some point?
Light | Shade | Color | Pattern | Leading Lines!
A curved segment of one of the World Trade Center steel beams
A mangled World Trade Center girder
A locomotive for the Upper Merion and Plymouth line
42: the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything….If you don’t get it, consult your handy copy of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” - but above all, Don’t Panic!
Red means stop, green means go, yellow means caution - what does blue mean in loco-lingo?
Enough confounded color - back to the black (and white)!
Ok, sometimes back-pedaling on the contrast and texture settings creates a more pleasing soft-focus effect
The 9/11 World Trade Center monument with one of the steel “trees” at the entrance to the factory
Another perspective of the 9/11 monument
A third view of the 9/11 monument
A Sonarsphere constructed by Lukens - this massive, 27-ton device would have been housed in the bow of a nuclear submarine. For more information, click HERE.