Pennsylvania's Abandoned Cement Kilns | Coplay Kilns 

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I was born and raised in coplay PA and I've lived 5 minutes from these things my whole life, hell i could see my house on that google maps shot lmao 😂 so cool to see a video from this channel on the history of my home town!! So awesome!!

Siegfried Station is the train station in what was the town of Siegfried, now Northampton, across the Lehigh River in Northampton County. Siegfried was originally Siegfried's Ferry, later changed to Siegfried's Bridge. Lehigh County didn't exist until 1812, so Cementon was part of Siegfried's Ferry when it was still part of Northampton County and remained as such until it was renamed Cementon with the opening of the quarry and cement plant around 1900, and still operates today. The American cement industry may have started in Copley, but Northampton was the capital. Atlas was one of the largest plants in the world and was based in Northampton. There are cement plants everywhere in the area, several still operating, stretching over into Lebanon County. And everyone has at least one relative that worked at one of them. My wife's grandfather and uncles worked at them. My grandfather worked at Allentown Portland Cement in Molltown in Berks County, and my father started his trucking career hauling stone and bulk cement for the construction the interstates and the Philadelphia International Airport runways in the late '60s and '70s. Between the cement from the Northampton area and the steel from Bethlehem, much of the world's buildings and infrastructure was built with the raw materials produced in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.

I run 2 286 foot rotary kilns Been doing it about 6 1/2 years now. I love hearing things about the industry. We have the capacity Is of processing 80 tons of Stone an hour Which yields a little bit less than half So 40 tons of lime per hour We were able to do this with 4 men

Thank goodness you made this more interesting than watching cement dry.

I remember a lot of Portland Cement being shipped out of the Howes Cave, NY cement plant as a kid back in the 1950's and 1960's. Trucks with bags of cement on flat bed truck trailers held down by elastic rubber bungee cords that my dad would collect for reuse by him off the side of the road that fell off those trucks. Many, many train cars loaded with cement and tractor trailers too. The trailers looked like miniature versions of the rail cars. I look back now and wonder where all that cement ended up made by our local company.

There has been a cement factory at Howes Cave, NY for as long as I can remember. It was cool as a preteen to hear that warning siren go off, run to the window and watch the explosion go off in the quarry across the valley to mine new limestone. My mother worked in the office for one of the many different companies that owned the quarry over time. At one time, the quarry employed 400 workers. That was a significant amount of employees in a county that counted more dairy cows than people in it. 😂😂

I live about 25 miles from Coply and had never heard of the kilns or even the history of cement making in the area. A buddy of mile and I took a drive up last weekend and really enjoyed the visit. As can be seen, the kilns are in fairly good shape ( considering ) and seem to be getting stabilized ( slowly ). Thanks so much for the video, would have missed out and a great day trip experience without it !

Very nice - would like to see a video about the history of coke ovens if is possible

In Coplay, we pronounce it COP-plee. Yes, COP-plee.

you should do a video on all the coke ovens in rural western pa that fueled Pittsburgh's steel industry, Wilpen, new Florence, and Bolivar were all involved with it, along with a whole bunch of tiny company towns. some even lost naming, like India / Climax and Lock Port, now with only the roads that lead to them keeping the names

"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered,. And the process is continuing day by day an minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right." George Orwell

Parents really should have their kids (and other adults) watching this channel!! I know a whole lot about history, but I didn't know about these Kilns... Learned some about cement as well.. Thanks Sir!

Me and my wife found them in our exploring. They are a cool part of the history of the area.

Love you research n dig up actual photos whereas a lot of history channels use random not related but period photos(kinda piss me off lol) but tks n keep em rolling. Idk how fast back you go but LOT of 1812 battles and native American events happened here in indiana!

The ones on the thumb nail are located in Coplay,Pa ( a suburb of Allentown on the Lehigh Valley) which are next to a really nice trail.

Good job. Hey, since you mentioned it, something to think about. CO2 is plant food. NASA imaging has proven that the fractional increase in atmospheric CO2 to date is “greening” the world. So, if you want more plants, we need more CO2 in the air. Well, not to the point where it isn't practical for animals of course, but there is a lot of room to go before that level is reached.

Excellent video 👍 thanks

Me thinks you would make an outstanding history professor... REALLY Thanks for your time, work and posting.

Thank you so much for this video. As a native from very close by, I especially enjoy the comments here. I am happy to see the pride from those of us from that part of the world. My father, uncles, and grandfather all worked in the cement industry, my great uncle had a hotel (bar) across the street from the Cop-Lee (sorry to pile on) works, and my ancestors were the Siegfrieds of the Siegfrieds Ferry. One of my fondest memories was driving past those kilns with my father, when they were nothing more than ruins, who was sure to point out that that's were they made the first cement!

Huh; from the area and I never knew about them. Cool to see some stuff from the LV! Keep up the great work *“Cop-lee Cop-lee Cop-lee” 🤣

While CO2 is given off when made into powder, the reverse happens after it is wetted and it reabsorbs the CO2 over time.

I wonder what they look like inside...

Fascinating and thought-provoking subject. Portland Cement has a reputation as a most durable product, one of the reasons so much of it was used to create highways and byways in California. Use of it for highway construction ended, and now we have asphalt, which delaminates and deteriorates quickly. Patching it with more of the same has produced the abominable roads and streets we have in the West. Stretches of the early cement highways (1920-era) are still in use in and around Los Angeles County. Maybe someone with more information and knowledge about the change in highway and public use structural material can explain why this happened, and perhaps educate us further. I'm not an expert in construction OR materials. I noticed the changes & consequences and wonder why. Building anything with better materials - roads, harbors, dams, Public buildings like hospitals, schools, and bridges that are durable and beautiful sets a benchmark for a higher standard of living/ quality of life. As an elder American citizen I hope we can do better. Our infrastructure needs renovation and/or replacement from the ground up. There's much work to be done.

Outstanding video Ryan

Really enjoyed this one. I’ve been to these kilns many times,They are fascinating. I also have 40 years working at a cement plant about 9 miles from these Historic relics.👍

There's something about the way those things look that creep me out.

If I remember correctly, Fred Flintstone invented concrete

I'm from the area... locals pronounce Coplay, "Kop' Lee"

Very interesting

VERY COOL,THANK YOU

Lolol any one else for a split sec . Think he was talking about bam margera house from viva la bam 😂

Concrete? Or cement?

It's cop-lay. Not co-play. I've lived in the lehigh valley most of my life and bike on the trial near there.

It's amazing how man made these kinds of things back then. 360 plus miles of cement canal in New York. Now, modern society where we have massive engineering machines that could have made this canal in a fraction of the time and we cannot get the Governments and "others" in charge to do similar canals, waterways, aqueducts to move greatly needed water to areas in dire need of it. Places like The Great Salt Lake in Northern Utah is at an emergency state from over population of the area, and some say drought in the West. Water can be moved from other areas of the region to fill this lake back up. Same situation with The Salton Sea in southern California. The Colorado River and the two big lakes on it (Lake Powell and Lake Mead are in severe lowest levels ever due to overuse of the water the river provides. Again, the "scientist" put blame mostly on this climate change hog wash when the main issue is overuse of water due to population growth and more FOREIGHN companies buying up miles and miles of area to grow and raise cattle on. These water issues can be solved if only those in charge of the checkbook would do it.

Interesting 😊😊😊

No one ever pronounces PA town names correctly.

Cool!

I ride my bike past those

You call them “Abandoned” in the title, and then go on to explain that they are not abandoned, but in fact are preserved as a historical landmark. You need to learn the definition of “Abandoned”.

3:30 did you know that all plants on earth eat CO2?

promoting better help =/ naw bro

Still cant pronounce new orleans correctly

12 million years, 65 - 500 million years makes me think of Grandpa Simpson screaming at the clouds. Settle out of court before its too late...

Plenty of housing for migrants.

A video idea is plastics and how sick and tired I am of picking up trash that can't be recycled. There's a whole medical industry based upon plastic ingestion but that's a pronoun for another day.

As a 30 year veteran of the cement industry (2nd generation), I approve this message.

Just fast forward the first 6 minutes.

@jonlevichannel