Homestead Steel Works was a large steel works located on the Monongahela River at Homestead, Pennsylvania in the United States. Originally built for the Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Company, the plant began rapidly expanding following its purchase by Andrew Carnegie in 1883. Much like the neighboring Edgar Thompson Works, it was served by tributary coal and iron fields, the Union Railroad 425 miles (684 km) long, and a line of lake steamships. The works was also the site of one of the more serious labor disputes in U.S. history, which became known as the Homestead strike of 1892. "Change and Continuity: Steel Workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 1889-1895".