Big Steel, Beautiful Filth

Stunning image of a steel plant in Etna, Pennsylvania in 1941, by Alfred Palmer. (Nothing quite like Kodachrome, is there?) Quite beautiful, as long as you can conveniently ignore the fact that the site was probably one of the filthiest on the planet. This reminds me of driving past Gary, Indiana on I-90 many years ago, as the setting sun vividly lit up the plumes streaming out of the smokestacks of the U.S. Steel plant. I remember thinking how beautiful it was, even if what was making it beautiful was throat-clogging pollution.

(Via Shorpy.)