El Paso Smelter and Railroad Bridge

El Paso Smelter and Railroad Bridge

The postcard shows the El Paso railroad bridge in the beginning of the 20th century. To the right is the Mexican bank, to the left the U. S. bank. At that time, the Rio Grande carried a lot more water than it does today. Behind the bridge, some houses and the stacks of Smeltertown can be seen. Smeltertown was an industrial area, which came into being with the construction in 1887 of the Kansas City Consolidated Smelting and Refining Company (later the American Smelting and Refining Company, or ASARCO) copper and lead smelter. In the 1880s the Mexican employees of the smelter began building houses west of the smelter, beside the Rio Grande. The residents lived in very poor conditions, which was brought to attention in the 1940s. In the 1970s it was found out that the majority of the residents there were suffering from lead poisoning due to a huge amount of lead emission. As ASARCO was not prepared to modernize and improve, the residents were forced to move and the smelter closed down.

Area: Central / Smeltertown

Collection: Stansel Postcard Collection

Source: University of Texas at El Paso Library - Special Collections Department

Reference ID: PH049-1-1-036

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

Smeltertown

Otis Aultman took this photo of the ASARCO plant. The copper ...

Edwin Brooke Jones

E. B. Jones School in the Smelter District was named after Edwin ...

John Sadler Barlow

John Barlow was the brother-in-law of E. B. Jones. E. B. Jones ...

Bridge & ASARCO Stacks

The images shows one of the bridges in El Paso. In the back, the ...

Rebel Camp Opposite Smelter

El Paso, Texas, smelter, rebel camp

Father Lourdes F. Costa - El Paso, Texas

Father Lourdes F. Costa arrived in El Paso, Texas in 1912. He ...

Rio Grande and Smelting Plant

The postcard probably dates from the 1910s. On the top it says: ...

Billy Smith Boxing Match - El Paso, Texas

Billy Smith beats Harirty above the smelter in El Paso, Texas.

ASARCO Bridge

Title: 6. VIEW OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD BRIDGE, EAST ...

Bridge

Title: 7. VIEW OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD BRIDGE, LOWER CHORD, ...

Smeltertown Church

Asarco Mexican Catholic Church church at the smelter, El Paso, ...

Bridge over Rio Grande

The image shows a bridge over the Rio Grande near Mount Cristo ...

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM 4

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM, History Standing atop the ...

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM, History Standing atop the ...

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM 2

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM, History Standing atop the ...

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM 3

Mt. Cristo Rey. Sunland Park, NM, History Standing atop the ...

Train Bridge

Train Bridge in executive dr and paisano

Train Bridge

Train Bridge in executive dr and paisano

Train Bridge

Train Bridge in executive dr and paisano

Train Bridge

Train Bridge at Executive Drive and Paisano in El Paso TX.

Smelter Town

SMELTERTOWN, TEXAS. Smeltertown is an industrial area on ...

Wagons crossing river

U.S. Army Punitive Expedition into Mexico, 1916.

River Crossing - Punitive Expedition

Cavalry crossing the river during the U.S. Punitive Expedition.

home.search_collection