The company also built the two crawler-transporters used by NASA for transporting the Saturn V rocket and later the Space Shuttle to their launch pads.

The company's shovels played a major role in excavation for Hoover Dam, the Holland Tunnel and the extension of the Number 7 subway line to Main Street in Flushing, Queens.

The Marion Steam Shovel Company was established by Henry Barnhart, George W. King and Edward Huber in August 1884.

While steam shovels had been made prior to this date in the United States, Barnhart persuaded Huber to financially back his design, which incorporated a stronger bucket support than other makes.

One element of Barnhart's design was the use of solid iron rods (hog rings) to support the boom of the shovel, which was stronger than simple chain.

[3] One set the record in July 1908 for moving 53,000 cubic yards (41,000 m3) of earth in 25 eight-hour days after American project management began.

Poet Boris Ruchyov wrote the "Ballad of Excavator Marion" [Баллада об экскаваторе Марион] on this occasion.

Marion’s succession of giant shovels, many breaking world size records, starting with The Mountaineer in 1956 which was 16 stories.

[citation needed] The Marion Power Shovel Company was refinanced by management in the late 1960s with only the signature guarantee of the primary stockholder, billionaire Henry Hillman, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and PNC Bank fame.