Man vs. The 100 Ton Hunk of Slag

This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published August 30, 2013 and can be found here.

   For the past few weeks workers have been attacking a 100 ton hunk of slag that was discovered at the Port of Rochester     last spring    . Yesterday I noticed the giant plume of smoke from the O'rorke Bridge and made my way down to the scene of this epic battle. When the dust settles, who will remain standing? Man? Or The Slag?

   This is what the beast looked like in June. It's called a "button" and it's made up of limestone, phosphate, iron and other heavy metals; the byproduct of the iron-making process. It was created by a huge blast furnace once operated here by the Quinnesee Iron Mining Company nearly a century ago. [     Read more about the "button"    ]

   A cool bit of history of you ask me. But the City wants it gone so they can begin work on the new marina project.

   Workers are using blow torches and heavy equipment to drill holes into the hunk, slowly breaking it up into pieces small enough to be hauled away - to where, I have no clue. If you'd like a decorative boulder for your garden I suggest you come on down to Charlotte.

   The thick orange smoke is probably some indication of the minerals contained within. But I can't say what. Is there a chemist in the house?!

   That guy in the middle of the crater is standing on top of the button which extends down at least 5 or 6 feet into the hole. The thing is truly massive. I'm almost expecting a Martian spaceship to bust out of that thing and start vaporizing everything in sight.

   Something's inside there I tell you! RUN YOU FOOLS!