Abandoned Industrial Places

The decaying remnants of obselete industries and defunct commerce – whether coal mines, shipyards, factories, shopping centres, power plants, warehouses or mills – lie scattered in desolate locations throughout the world. These left-over structures still hold memories of the life that was once there. Transience was built in from the start. When a mine was worked out, it was abandoned; sometimes its machinery was removed to another mine, but often it was easier to equip the new place with more up-to-date equipment.
Abandoned Industrial Places explores the discarded detritus of our modern mechanized age. Discover the grand Ore Dock in Marquette, USA, squatting isolated in the waters of Lake Superior; or the abandoned Caspian Sea oil rigs and drilling gear in Azerbaijan; or the enormous, gaping pit of the 1200m (3900ft) wide Mirny diamond mine in Sakha Republic, Russia; or the 700m (765yd) high wall of latticed steel towers of the Duga radar in Chernobyl, Ukraine; or the Domino Sugar Refinery, Brooklyn, New York – formerly the world’s largest sugar refinery when built in 1882; or the still contaminated Fisher Body Plant 21 in Detroit, USA, a place where General Motors created some of their great marques for almost a hundred years.
Filled with more than 200 memorable photographs from every part of the planet, Abandoned Industrial Places provides a strange and often spooky insight into the life and workings of industries long since ceased.

David Ross specialises in maritime, engineering and railway history and he has written and contributed to numerous books on these subjects. His most recent books are Abandoned Industrial Places, Rail Journeys, Bridges, Coast, Lighthouses, Ships Visual Encyclopedia, Submarines, and The World’s Greatest Battleships. He lives in England.