{"id":1207,"date":"2020-03-07T16:46:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T16:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2026-03-19T22:33:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:33:42","slug":"steel-stacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/2020\/03\/07\/steel-stacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Steel Stacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Resized_20191116_121333\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE STEEL STACKS SIT SILENT ALONG THE LEHIGH<\/p>\n

RIVER VALLEY,<\/p>\n

AWASH IN GLOOMY GRAY CLOUDS THAT RENDER IT<\/p>\n

MORE EERIE.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

FIVE ANITIQUATED BLAST FURNACES AT THE FORMER BETHLEHEM STEEL MILL,<\/p>\n

ARE BRIGHTLY LIT, NOT WITH THE FIERY GLOW OF MOLTEN IRON<\/p>\n

BUT WITH THE PURPLES, BLUES AND GREENS OF FOUR HUNDRED SPOTLIGHTS<\/p>\n

SHINING ON THEM.<\/p>\n

THE ROAR, DIN AND ACRID ODOR OF THESE BLAST FURNACES WITH\u00a0ITS BRIGHT<\/p>\n

FLASHES OF LIQUID IRON ORE, COAL AND LIMESTONE BEING SMELTED,<\/p>\n

NO LONGER BANG OUT.<\/p>\n

STANDING IN THEIR SHADOWS OF THE STILNESS ON THIS FROSTY DECEMBER<\/p>\n

NIGHT, THESE TUBE LIKE STRUCTURES, IDLE NOW, CRY A CLARION<\/p>\n

CALL, BEGGING TO BE REMEMBERED.<\/p>\n

RISING LIKE BEASTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL AGE, THEY\u2019RE NOW DIMINISHED TO<\/p>\n

NOTHING MORE THAN RELICS OF A BYGONE ERA.<\/p>\n

FOR ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN YEARS, THIS PLANT STOOD PROUD AS THE<\/p>\n

SECOND LARGEST STEELMAKER IN THE UNITED STATES, HAVING MADE<\/p>\n

EIGHTY PER CENT OF MANHATTAN\u2019S SKYLINE AND WITHOUT WHICH, WORLD WAR TWO<\/p>\n

MAY NOT HAVE BEEN WON.<\/p>\n

THE ECHOS OF THE LAST CAST OF IRON BEING MOLDED IN NOVEMBER 1995, STILL CLAP<\/p>\n

AND BLARE OUT, IF ONLY FAINTLY, ON THIS COLD NIGHT.<\/p>\n

THE SAGA OF THE STEELMAKERS, LIKE THOSE OF MY UNCLES WALLY AND GEZA,<\/p>\n

THIRTEEN THOUSAND STRONG, WILL FOREVER RING, JUST AS THE<\/p>\n

HYDRAULIC HAMMERS, THAT SHAPED AMERICA\u2019S STEEL.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  THE STEEL STACKS SIT SILENT ALONG THE LEHIGH RIVER VALLEY, AWASH IN GLOOMY GRAY CLOUDS THAT RENDER IT MORE EERIE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zCq3-jt","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1127,"url":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/2019\/07\/09\/crybaby\/","url_meta":{"origin":1207,"position":0},"title":"Crybaby","author":"Gary Gladstone","date":"July 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"As a young newspaper photographer, I saw some pretty horrific things. Arriving at accident scenes often ahead of the police, I was exposed to some raw suffering. But somehow I remained unemotional and was able to continue shooting pictures to complete my assignment. Some of the worst of what I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Non-fictions"","block_context":{"text":"Non-fictions","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/category\/contents\/submissions\/non-fictions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"crybaby2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/crybaby2-300x286.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1237,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions\/1237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.talesfromthelake.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}