Curated trail · 3 places
Steel, coke, and the Lake Erie shore
Trace the industrial systems that joined furnaces, coke production, labor, slag, waterways, air pollution, cleanup, and reuse along the region's waterfront.
- 01
Lackawanna · Erie County
Bethlehem Steel
Former integrated steel complex where Seneca Steel began production in 1902 and Bethlehem Steel operated from 1922. About 440 acres of the present property are manmade land built with slag and manufacturing waste. Cleanup, monitoring, groundwater treatment, habitat work, and land-use controls continue across separately managed portions of the site.
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Town of Tonawanda · Erie County
Tonawanda Coke
Former coke manufacturing facility documented as a major historical benzene source, where shutdown response, removal work, state cleanup, and redevelopment followed the 2018 closure.
Open place record → - 03
Buffalo · Erie County
Buffalo River
Industrial corridor where an oil-fed 1968 river fire became a stark symbol of severe pollution, followed decades later by contaminated-sediment cleanup, habitat restoration, and long-term recovery work.
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