Ironworkers Archives

Ironworkers are great Americans who literally built America.  By the late 1880s, wood and stone supported bridges and buildings were replaced by steel as the primary load-carrying material.  Out of this building revolution, a new worker was born, the ironworker. Ironworkers risked their lives to build the backbone of this country, whether in New York City skyscrapers or bridges that supported the roads and ultimately the highways for cars. In order to get fair employment treatment, ironworkers united, forming the International Association of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers of America in 1896 in Pittsburgh, which is appropriate since that is where Andrew Carnegie was.