Driving into Birmingham from the east, the towering chimneys and rusting furnaces at Sloss Furnaces dominate the skyline. You may have come to this Alabama city to learn about the civil rights movement, but Birmingham’s industrial impact on the world is also huge. Now preserved as a National Historic Landmark, the Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham it was once the largest cast iron manufacturer in the world and remains a monument to the Industrial Revolution of the 19thu century.
I had the distinct pleasure of not only touring the sprawling 32 acre site as part of my visit to Birmingham, but also photographing the industrial plant at night when it is normally closed in an attempt to capture its historical impact.
An abandoned industrial factory that remains rusty and dirty as Sloss Furnaces it may not seem like a place to browse, let alone photograph. Let me reassure you, it is both. It’s not often people get to see this kind of history up close, and the dramatic scale of the storage towers and chimneys that shoot into the sky above give you a realistic look at what made Birmingham grow the way it did. Getting the opportunity to creatively photograph this story at night only added to the interest. Some of these images are here to give you a look at this website in pictures.
For three nights I was able to wander corridors, duck in and out of tunnels, dodge under pipes and boilers and wander around abandoned equipment. I made my way around railings and wheels, into engine rooms and through slag pits, looking for great photos that showed either the tiny detail or the monumental size of the Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark. At the same time, I could almost hear the moaning and groaning of those who worked there – or maybe I thought I did, as it is said to be haunted with the ghosts of those who toiled so hard… and those who died doing it.
A little history of Sloss Furnaces
After the Civil War, developers saw the riches available in the hills around Birmingham. All the ingredients needed to make cast iron were there within a 30 mile radius – iron ore, coal, limestone, dolomite and clay. By 1871, its exploitation had begun. A businessman was the namesake of the historic Birmingham landmark – Colonel James Withers Sloss. He began construction in 1881, including stoves that were 60 feet tall and 18 feet in diameter. The Sloss factory changed hands several times, but roared to even greater success during World War II.
Segregation also continued at Sloss with black workers being treated badly, paid poorly and kept on the bottom rung. Indeed, civil rights are woven into the history at Sloss, and you’ll see this detailed on interpretive signs on a self-guided tour or hear about it on a guided tour. If you go online, you’ll also find virtual tours for training to see better from afar.
The Sloss Furnaces received National Historic Landmark status in 1981, although the oldest of the towering structures and other buildings that remain date back as far as 1902. The plant closed for good in 1971 and is the only 20u century blast furnace in the United States preserved and interpreted.
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Of course, being surrounded by this kind of machinery and metal prompts you to try new compositions that will better tell the story of a historic industrial site. This included more black and white photos than I usually take, as well as pointing out details that helped paint a picture of the site.
Shadows and Light
Furnace Pipes
Dusty Control Room
Temperature and timing tower
Shadow building
Looking up through the pipes and machinery at Sloss brings home the dramatic scale. Using the magic of longer exposure, the natural beauty of stars and clouds is revealed to help contrast sharp metallic edges.
Clouds above
Cloud Trails
Towers and Star Trails
