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Modern Business Geography 
1G. 167. Some of the foundries at Homestead, a typical *‘steel city.” Here many thousands of 
iron, or in the steel plants where the smelted iron is made into steel, or in the 
The great manufacturing cities of the Middle West. Four cities 
of this third manufacturing district — namely, Chicago, Cleveland, 
Pittsburgh, and Detroit — rank among the world’s greatest industrial 
centers. Their advantages in the matter of transportation have 
already been discussed (pages 217 to 221). 
Chicago, with two thirds of the factory workers of Illinois, stands 
first among the cities of the United States not only in wooden products, 
but in slaughtering and meat packing, in foundry and machine-shop 
work, and in making and repairing railroad cars. Almost everyone 
knows of the Pullman cars, which are made in a Chicago suburb. 
Cleveland, by reason of its favorable position on Lake Erie, finds 
that it pays to bring coal from near Pittsburgh to meet the iron ore 
that comes from the Lake Superior region. Its specialties range 
from small articles like nails, wire, bolts, and hardware, to bulky ships 
and bridges, — practically all of them products that use large amounts 
of iron. 
Pittsburgh is the center of a cluster of great iron-working commu- 
nities, including McKeesport, South Bethlehem, Braddock, and Home- 
stead. The growth of this cluster in just this area depends largely 
on the fact that the meeting point of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers 
happens to lie near a great seam of coal sixteen feet thick. The 
cities stretch along the rivers more than twenty miles. Their growth 
is helped by enormous quantities of petroleum and natural gas, which 
supplement the coal in the steel industries. In early days the neces- 
sary iron ore also was mined in the neighborhood. but this is now dis- 
placed by ore from Lake Superior. 
Detroit is an interesting response to a new industry. The location 
of the city, as we have seen, is favorable; but in 1900 twelve cities 
exceeded it in size and it was about the same size as Milwaukee. Then