March 2, 1901: The Birth of U.S. Steel

March 2, 1901: The United States Steel Corporation is founded, with financier J.P. Morgan paying for the merger of Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company, Elbert H. Gary's Federal Steel Company, and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company. Price: $492 million. (About $17.1 billion in 2022 money.) It was the 1st great corporate merger in American history.

A witness to the signing of the merger agreement recalled Carnegie telling Morgan, "I should have asked for $1 billion," and Morgan telling him, "If you had, you would have gotten it."

Charles M. Schwab, an executive at Carnegie Steel, becomes the 1st president of the company, after originally suggesting the merger to Morgan. The equities broker Charles R. Schwab, well-known for appearing in his own TV commercials, is not related to Charles M.

Known as U.S. Steel for short, the company's original headquarters was the Empire Building, built in 1898 at 71 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. Since 1971, it has been at the U.S. Steel Tower, at 600 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh. At 841 feet, it is the tallest building in "the Steel City."

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March 2, 1901 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were in their off-seasons. Basketball barely existed. Hockey season was already over, with the Winnipeg Victorias having won the Stanley Cup.

In England, and in Carnegie's native Scotland, there was soccer action, including Woolwich Arsenal, then playing home games at the Manor Ground in Plumstead in Kent (now part of Southeast London but eventually in North London, losing 1-0 to Grimsby Town at home. Liverpool would win the Football League Division One, but, on this day, could only manage a 2-2 draw with Preston North End at Anfield in Liverpool.