Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co.

The Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company (originally the Des Moines Bridge and Iron Company), and often referred to as Pitt-Des Moines Steel or PDM was an American steel fabrication company. It operated from 1892 until approximately 2002 when its assets were sold to other companies, including Chicago Bridge & Iron Company.[1][2][3] The company began as a builder of steel water tanks and bridges. It also later fabricated the "forked" columns for the World Trade Center in the 1960s,[1] and was the steel fabricator and erector for the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.[4][5] A number of its works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[6][7]

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis. One of many notable structures built by the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co.
Cotton Plant Water Tower in Arkansas, built 1935 by the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co.

History

The company was founded in 1892 by two graduates of Iowa State College, William H. Jackson and Berkeley M. Moss.[8] The partners initially contracted to have their steel tanks fabricated by Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh, but soon took on a third partner, Edward W. Crellin, who was operating a small fabricating shop in Des Moines, Iowa. It was at this point that the Des Moines Bridge and Iron Company was formed. The company would ship steel stock from Pittsburgh for the manufacture of a range of engineered products including water towers, bridges, water works and electric plants. Moss left the company around 1905, after a new fabricating plant had been opened in Warren, Pennsylvania in 1900.

In 1916, the name of the company was changed to Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company, and a new headquarters was opened in Pittsburgh. The partnership remained until 1956, when the company was incorporated.[9] It later became Pittsburgh-Des Moines Corporation in 1980, which was later shortened to Pitt-Des Moines, Inc. in 1985. It had also had registered "PDM" as a trademark as early as 1930.[10]

In July 1993, the original site and fabrication works in Des Moines, Iowa (by then called the Des Moines Heavy Bridge Division) was damaged beyond salvage due to flooding from the Raccoon River, causing the site to be permanently closed,[11] and later sold.

In 2001 the company was acquired by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company. The Warren plant was closed in early 2009 by CB&I.[12] Also in 2001, the company's steel distribution unit was acquired by Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.[13]

In 2016, PDM relocated its headquarters to the city of Elk Grove, California, where it remains today.[14]

Works

Works include (with variations in attribution so noted):

References
  1. Lukens Historic District - excerpt from email from John R. Adams
  2. "Steel company executive put business before self". Trib Live. May 2, 2003.
  3. Jim Foster and Rich Lundgren (1992). Towering over America: An Illustrated History of Pitt-Des Moines, Inc. Pitt-Des Moines, Incorporated. ISBN 9780898658378.
  4. A Sightseer's Guide to Engineering: Gateway Arch
  5. National Park Service - Fabricating the Steel
  6. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  7. Highway Bridges of Iowa MPS
  8. historic bridges.org
  9. NISHNABOTNA RIVER BRIDGE, HAER No. IA-48
  10. PITT -DES MOINS, INC. BRIEFING
  11. SEC Filing, Fiscal Year 1994
  12. CB&I closing Warren plant, February 3, 2009
  13. Reliance Steel to Buy Pitt-Des Moines Unit
  14. Press Release - PDM Steel Relocates Corporate Headquarters to Elk Grove
  15. Richard Vidutls, Jim Hlppen. "Jefferson Street Viaduct" (PDF). United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Retrieved 2012-04-29.
  16. Lacey, Patricia. "Neillsville Standpipe" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. U.S. Department of the Interior - National Park Service. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
  17. HAER documentation for Nishnabotna River Bridge
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