This photograph depicts the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, which was constructed in 1874. The land where the plant stood was purchased for just over $219,000 in 1873 by Carnegie, McCandless & Company. The land, which later became known as the town of Braddock, is located along the Monongahela River, about ten miles north of Pittsburgh. The plant was named after John Edgar Thomson, an early financial backer of the firm and the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which became a major purchaser of the mill’s iron rails. Production on the mill began in 1875, and within a year it created more than thirty-two tons of steel rail.