Braddock is extremely important for the simple reason that it was Andrew Carnegie's first steel works. In 1872 Carnegie and a group of investors purchased 107 acres of farmland in Braddock's field (The field was known as such because it was the location where French and Indian troops ambushed and slaughtered the incompetent General Edward Braddock's army in 1755.) The Braddock plant was named after the Chairman of the Pennsylavania Railroad, J. Edgar Thomson. Thomson was one of the major investors in Carnegie's first plant and he saw to it that much of the railroad's steel was purchased from Carnegie. The plant began operating in 1875 and contained all of the state of the art technology, including two Bessemer furnaces and rail mills. The enormous success of the Braddock plant would play an important role in the future of the city of Andrew Carnegie, and the city of Pittsburgh.
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