The Day That Changed American Banking Forever: Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) and More

The merger immediately catapulted U.S. Steel into the realm of business legend. Within two months it was part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, becoming the only company to have both its common and preferred shares listed on the index at the same time. There was good reason for this. In its first year, U.S. steel made two out of every three tons of steel produced in the United States. However, U.S. Steel was not a nimble giant. Burdened by debts from its creation and always fearful of antitrust litigation, U.S. Steel’s share of the steelmaking pie slipped to half the American total within a decade. This didn’t stop its expansion in other directions, as a 1907 acquisition of Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad caused a further shakeup in the Dow by absorbing a major direct competitor and fellow index component.

U.S. Steel reached its height during and after World War II. In 1943, the company employed 340,000 workers. A decade later, it produced 35 million tons of steel, its all-time record. It would remain part of the index until 1991, which is one of the longest streaks of uninterrupted membership in the Dow’s history, but was removed because of the reduced impact of steelmaking on American industry, and more importantly, because of its own ongoing weakness in a post-industrial world. Today, U.S. Steel is still the largest American steelmaker, but it’s only the 13th largest steelmaker in the world, with roughly a fourth of the production capacity of global leader ArcelorMittal (ADR) (NYSE:MT).

The article The Day That Changed American Banking Forever originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alex Planes.

Fool contributor Alex Planes holds no financial position in any company mentioned here. Add him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter, @TMFBiggles, for more insight into markets, history, and technology.The Motley Fool recommends Wells Fargo and (NYSE:WFC) owns shares of ArcelorMittal, Wells Fargo, and Sturm, Ruger.

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