The ironworks were the largest in the United States in the late 1840s, and the first in the nation to produce iron rails for the construction of railroads.
The works were established in an area adjacent to mines for coal, iron ore and fire clay.
The company, led by Samuel Swartwout, a New York land speculator, renamed this area as the town of Mount Savage, and made plans to establish an iron works.
[1]: 289 After raising funds from investors, the company built two blast furnaces in 1840, using coke as fuel.
[3] The works faced competition from various facilities in Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes region, where superior grades of iron ore were discovered and mined beginning in the 1850s.