By The Numbers: The Waterfront Smokestacks

The smokestacks — which are echoed in the Waterfront’s logo and pictured in the music video for Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” — now serve as an iconic monument to the Steel City’s industrial past.

photo by chuck beard

The line of smokestacks at the Waterfront shopping and entertainment district in Homestead stands apart from the rest of the complex. Located at the far corner of the AMC Loews movie theater parking lot, the smokestacks constitute one of the last remaining vestiges of the steel mills that once defined the neighborhood’s economy, life force and atmosphere.

The smokestacks — which are echoed in the Waterfront’s logo and pictured in the music video for Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow” — now serve as an iconic monument to the Steel City’s industrial past. To help you appreciate them, let’s break it down.

$300 million
The amount spent to develop the Waterfront shopping center.

130 feet
The height of each smokestack.

300
The number of Pinkerton guards that Henry Clay Frick hired to put down the Homestead Strike of 1892, near the site of the modern-day Waterfront.

12
The number of smokestacks that line the Waterfront property along the Monongahela River.

10
The minimum number of people killed during the battle between strikers and guards on July 6, 1892; some sources claim as many as 16 were killed.

2,250° Fahrenheit
The temperature reached within the soaking pits.

$350,000
The amount Andrew Carnegie spent to purchase the Homestead Steel Works in 1883, the equivalent of $8-9 million today.

15,000
The peak number of workers at the mill, reached during World War II.