Sloss Furnaces- Birmingham
Is Birmingham, Alabama on your bucket list? No? Maybe it should be. I had never given a thought to going to Birmingham prior to last year but my daughter went for a music festival hosted at the Sloss furnaces historical site and my interest was piqued. She decided to go again this year and I tagged along, I wanted to see Sloss furnaces, enjoy the music and also see Birmingham a little.
I didn’t venture outside the historic district and it was rather charming. I hit a couple excellent restaurants (Helen and Automatic Seafood) and enjoyed the ambiance of a city once dominated by a single heavy industry which is enjoying some level of gentrification. Good coffee? check. good food? check. art? check. urban rejuvenation? check. historic preservation? check. Scooters and bicycles? check. All the trappings of a place you can live and work. It reminded me a lot of Worcester, Massachusetts which is undergoing a similar rejuvenation.
Sloss furnaces was the highlight of the trip. At the geological nexus of coal, limestone and iron ore lays Birmingham and Sloss was an oasis of iron production – and worker danger. Two massive blast furnaces running 24×7 for 80+ years, no worker safety, death, rail cars running regular – raw material in, iron out. The site is a fascinating testament to the industrial age in America and a rarity in preservation.
