Sparrows Point is an industrial area in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, adjacent to Edgemere. Named after Thomas Sparrow, landowner, it was the site of a very large industrial complex owned by Bethlehem Steel, known for steelmaking and shipbuilding. In its heyday in the mid-20th century, it was the largest steel mill in the world.[1] The site of the former Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard and steel mill is now renamed Tradepoint Atlantic in a revitalization program to clean up the environment and make it one of the largest ports on the East Coast of the United States.[2] Today Sparrows Point is home to many distribution centers, fulfillment centers, training lots, storage lots, and the like, including those operated by Under Armour, Amazon, Home Depot, Volkswagen, and McCormick & Company.[3][4]
Sparrows Point was originally marshland home to Native American tribes until being granted to one Thomas Sparrow Jr. (1620 - 1674) by Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, around 1652. His son Solomon Sparrow made a home there, calling it "Sparrow's Nest".[5] In the 1700s the area became home to other families, who farmed and raised crops, building homes and hunting lodges. Among the many wealthy residents of Baltimore who owned property there was Major General George H. Steuart, who hosted the social reformer Dorothea Dix at Sparrows Point.[6] By the 1860s much of the land, about 385 acres (156 ha), was owned by the Fitzell family.[5]
Sparrows Point remained largely rural until 1887, when an engineer named Frederick Wood realized that the marshy inlet would make an excellent deep-water port for the Pennsylvania Steel Company.[7]: 7 The Fitzells were reluctant to part with their peach orchards but were eventually persuaded to sell.[5]
Following World War II, many rural economic migrants settled in Sparrows Point, coming from Southern and Appalachian states. These migrants came to work at the Bethlehem Steel plant.[8] Many of these workers were from rural areas and mining towns of West Virginia and Central Pennsylvania.[9]
Steel was first made at Sparrows Point in 1889 by the Maryland Steel Company, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Steel Company.[10]
In 1916, Bethlehem Steel Corporation of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, purchased the mill. The mill's steel was used as girders in the Golden Gate Bridge and in cables for the George Washington Bridge, and was a vital part of war production during World War I and World War II.[11] The mill was served by four railroads: the Western Maryland, Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio, and the local Patapsco & Back River Railroad, which was responsible for yard work.
In the mid-1950s, the plant operated 10 blast furnaces and had a rated capacity of 8,200,000 short tons (7,321,000 long tons; 7,439,000 t) of ingot steel per year, making the Sparrows Point waterfront plant the largest steel mill in the world at the time, stretching 4 miles (6.4 km) from end to end and employing 30,000 workers.[1]Most of the iron ore consumed at the plant came via ship, imported from mines in South America and Labrador. Limestone and coal was brought in from Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia via rail. Steel was produced in 35 open hearth furnaces and cast into ingots, which were then reheated in soaking pits to be rolled into blooms or slabs via a large reversing rolling mill. Blooms were then rolled into long products like welded pipe, rebar, wire products, and nails. Slabs were rolled into sheets in a continuous rolling mill and plate in a reversing mill. The facility also featured a 66" cold rolling mill, a galvanizing line, and a tinplating line for sheet products. Additionally, the plant's coke ovens were also set up to capture certain coke byproducts like tar and toluene for resale.[12]
Los cambios en la industria del acero durante las décadas siguientes, incluido un aumento de las importaciones y una tendencia hacia el uso de hornos de oxígeno más simples y el reciclaje de chatarra , junto con el proceso intrínsecamente intensivo en tiempo y mano de obra de la fabricación de acero de hogar abierto, llevaron a una disminución en el uso del complejo Sparrows Point durante las décadas de 1970 y 1980.
Desde 1984 hasta 1986, un esfuerzo por modernizar resultó en la instalación exitosa de un horno de oxígeno básico (BOF), una coladora continua y sistemas de información de gestión de apoyo. Sin embargo, este esfuerzo por salvar la planta y Bethlehem Steel fue, quizás, demasiado poco y demasiado tarde.
En 2005, Mittal Steel adquirió la planta de Sparrows Point como parte de la adquisición de la empresa sucesora de Bethlehem Steel , International Steel Group, después de la quiebra de Bethlehem Steel .
En marzo de 2008, Mittal Steel vendió la planta a la empresa rusa Severstal por 810 millones de dólares. En 2008, la capacidad de fabricación de acero en Sparrows Point se había reducido a 3,6 millones de toneladas por año y vendió 2,3 millones de toneladas de productos terminados. [13]
En 2012, Renco Group de Ira Rennert compró la acería Sparrows Point junto con otras acerías en Ohio y Virginia Occidental por 1.200 millones de dólares. [14] Esto convirtió a Renco en el quinto propietario en los últimos diez años. RG Steel, LLC, una unidad de Renco , dirigió la instalación hasta que se declaró en quiebra el 31 de mayo de 2012. [15]
Hilco Trading compró la acería Sparrows Point durante la liquidación de RG Steel en agosto de 2012, y los activos del laminador en frío fueron comprados por Nucor , quien en 2012 y 2013 desmanteló el laminador en frío, con la intención de utilizar sus piezas para respaldar sus laminadores de láminas existentes. [dieciséis]
En septiembre de 2014, Sparrows Point Terminal, LLC (SPT) compró la propiedad de 3100 acres (1300 ha). [17] SPT celebró acuerdos con el Departamento de Medio Ambiente de Maryland (MDE) y la EPA , en virtud de los cuales SPT acordó desarrollar y ejecutar planes para completar la limpieza ambiental del sitio. [18] [19]
The agreements require SPT to establish a $43 million trust fund and provide MDE with a $5 million letter of credit to ensure that the cleanup work is completed, but the company remains obligated to complete the remediation work in accordance with those agreements, even if the cost exceeds $48 million.[18] SPT also agreed to provide the EPA with $3 million to perform additional offshore investigation and, if necessary, offshore remediation.[18] Both the purchase of the property by SPT and the company's agreements with MDE and USEPA were hailed by government and business leaders as a positive turning point for Sparrows Point. Maryland's Secretary of the Environment, Robert M. Summers, described the agreements as providing a "clear path to completion" of the environmental cleanup and an "extraordinary level of protection for the environment and public health."[18] Viewing the environmental cleanup as the first step toward major economic revitalization for Sparrows Point and the surrounding region, Baltimore County Executive Kevin B. Kamenetz stated that "the future for returning thousands of family-supporting jobs to Sparrows Point looks brighter than it has in many decades."[20] According to one of SPT's executives, the company's plans for redevelopment include transforming the site into "one of the largest ports on the East Coast".[17]
In September, 2018, Amazon opened a fulfillment center on the property as part of the Tradepoint Atlantic industrial complex.[4][21] In 2020 it opened a second fulfillment center next door.[22]
In 2023, it was announced that the US Department of Transportation Maritime Administration had allocated $47.4 million to redevelop the site of the former steel mill into an offshore wind turbine fabrication facility called Sparrows Point Steel.[23]
The Sparrows Point Shipyard site was a major center for shipbuilding and ship repair. Maryland Steel Company established the Sparrows Point yard in 1889, and it delivered its first ship in 1891. Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired the Sparrows Point shipyard in 1917. During the mid-twentieth century, Bethlehem Steel Shipbuilding (BethShip)'s Sparrows Point yard was one of the most active shipbuilders in the United States, delivering 116 ships in the seven-year period between 1939 and 1946.
During the 1970s, Bethlehem Steel invested millions of dollars in upgrades and improvements to the Sparrow' Point yard, making it one of the most modern shipbuilding facilities in the country. This included the construction of a large graving dock to allow for the construction of supertankers up to 1,200 feet (370 m) in length and 265,000 short tons (240,000 t) (gross) in size.
Bethlehem Steel lurched from one financial crisis to another throughout the 1980s and 1990s, selling the Sparrows Point yard to Baltimore Marine Industries Inc., a subsidiary of Veritas Capital, in 1997 as part of an unsuccessful restructuring attempt. Baltimore Marine operated the facility as a ship repair and refurbishment yard until 2003, when Baltimore Marine Industries collapsed in bankruptcy.
The Sparrows Point shipyard complex was sold at auction to Barletta Industries Inc. in 2004. Barletta is attempting a redevelopment of the site for use as a business and technology park, and plans to revive shipbuilding on at least part of the site, making use of the modern graving dock added in the 1970s.
In 2007, the international energy company AES Corporation applied to the federal government for a certificate to build and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Sparrows Point. The AES Sparrows Point LNG development would consist of three 160,000-cubic meter storage tanks and vessel offloading systems for LNG tankers.[24] AES would also construct a new natural gas pipeline, the Mid-Atlantic Express, which would run north from Maryland into Pennsylvania, crossing under the Susquehanna River to connect with existing natural gas pipelines. The 33-inch-diameter (840 mm) buried pipeline would be 88 miles (142 km) long.[25] The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project in January 2009, over the objections of state and county officials in Maryland and Pennsylvania.[26] FERC chairman Jon Wellinghoff cast a dissenting vote, stating that in his opinion the region’s energy needs could be better met without including LNG in the mix.[26] The Maryland Department of the Environment denied Sparrows Point a water-quality permit that would allow the company to dredge in Baltimore Harbor.[27] A citizens' group, the LNG Opposition Group, also opposes the project.
El complejo siderúrgico incluía una ciudad empresarial en su centro, inicialmente planeada por Frederick Wood y su hermano Rufus Wood en la década de 1890 para los miles de trabajadores de Maryland Steel. Tenía tiendas de la empresa, iglesias y calles residenciales, con casas más grandes para los gerentes de nivel superior y casas en hilera para otros empleados. [28] [29] En el momento de la Gran Depresión en la década de 1930, la ciudad de la empresa tenía 9.000 residentes. [30] A medida que los niveles de empleo crecieron en la década de 1910, los trabajadores también viajaban al complejo industrial Sparrows Point desde comunidades como Dundalk y la ciudad de Baltimore, con el Ferrocarril de Pensilvania operando el servicio de trenes de pasajeros desde Baltimore en los primeros años. United Railways & Electric Company de Baltimore (organizada en 1899 y rebautizada como Baltimore Transit Company en 1935), proporcionó un servicio de tranvía rápido y electrificado en su línea #26 , que operaba sobre un derecho de paso exclusivo de doble vía durante gran parte de su de eslora hasta la acería y el astillero. [31]
Aunque la ciudad de la empresa fue demolida en 1973, la cercana comunidad no incorporada del condado de Baltimore y lugar designado por el censo de Edgemere incluye el área de Sparrows Point y la escuela secundaria Sparrows Point , que continúa hasta el día de hoy. [29] [32]
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