Video Description
Modern America is built on a skeleton of steel. And without Andrew Carnegie, that skeleton may well have taken a different form. Before Carnegie, steel was a local affair, with small ironworks like the ones that survive in Saugus, Massachusetts and Hopewell, Pennsylvania supplying the demands of the surrounding areas. ANDREW CARNEGIE AND THE AGE OF STEEL visits these historic sites, then travels to the massive mills of today to show how the industry was transformed. Expert interviews, period photos and rare footage chronicle the evolution of steel into the pre-eminent American industry. See how Carnegie built an empire so large that when he sold out to J.P. Morgan it created the first billion-dollar corporation in history! Industrial historians detail the technological developments that propelled steel into the future, and provided the raw material that powered the nation's economy. But the steel industry has also been torn by intense labor unrest and stunned by increasingly strong international competition. From colonial forges to computerized mills that cover acres, this is the riveting history of the industry that built the nation.
