Moving Metal

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FOUNDATIONOF STEEL 1939-1959

In February 1939, an entrepreneur of Irish descent named Thomas James Neilan decided to go into the steel business. Neilan believed that he could succeed even though times were tough in Los Angeles just then. Like the rest of America, the city had weathered ten long, grinding years of the Great Depression, which had left tens of thousands of its residents unemployed and a multitude of local businesses struggling to survive.

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