Sparrows Point
| Sparrow's Point | |
|---|---|
| Unincorporated community area | |
 Sparrow's Point
Sparrow's Point
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| Coordinates: 39°13′9″N 76°28′34″W / 39.21917°N 76.47611°WCoordinates: 39°13′9″N 76°28′34″W / 39.21917°N 76.47611°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Maryland |
| County | Baltimore |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP codes | 21219 |
| GNIS feature ID | 591325 |
Sparrow's Point is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, adjacent to Dundalk, Maryland. Named for Thomas Sparrow, landowner, it was the site of a very large industrial complex owned by Bethlehem Steel, known for steelmaking and shipbuilding.
Sparrow's 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 in around 1652. His son Solomon Sparrow made a home there, calling it "Sparrow's Nest". Later 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 Sparrow's Point. By the 1860s much of the land, about 385 acres, was owned by the Fitzell family.
Sparrow's 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. The Fitzells were reluctant to part with their peach orchards but were eventually persuaded to sell.
Steel was first made at Sparrow's Point in 1889, by the Pennsylvania Steel Company. By the mid-20th century, the Sparrow's Point plant was the world's largest steel mill, stretching 4 miles (6.4 km) from end to end and employing tens of thousands of workers. It used the traditional open hearth steelmaking method to produce ingots, a labor- and energy-intensive process.
Bethlehem Steel purchased the mill in 1916. The mill's steel ended up 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. The mill was serviced by four railroads: the Western Maryland; Pennsylvania; Baltimore & Ohio; and yard work was done by the Patapsco & Back River Railroad.
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