Post- modernism in industrial civil engineering bridge photo by anonymous photographer. The photo is actual B & W archival photo with metadata on reverse referring to Groton-New London bridge (1972). Herein industrial photography as a ridge between modernist belief and postmodern doubt, and why these images matter aesthetically and conceptually. 1. U.S. Steel Photography as American Modernist Faith Early and mid-20th-century photographs of U.S. Steel plants, mills, and furnaces were not neutral documents. They were visual arguments. What they believed: • Industry = progress • Scale = national strength • Order = moral clarity Photographers-whether working for corporations, government agencies, or independently-after