WEIRTON

city, Brooke and Hancock counties, in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, U.S., on the Ohio River (bridged just south to Steubenville, Ohio). The area, originally settled during the U.S. War of Independence, has a long history of iron making. In the 1790s Peter Tarr built a crude furnace on nearby King's Creek to smelt local iron ore. Cannonballs, used by the U.S. fleet under Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry against the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, were made there. In 1909 Ernest Tener Weir founded the Weirton Steel Company, which grew to become one of the state's largest industrial employers. Until 1947, when the town merged with surrounding communities to form the present city, it was one of the nation's largest unincorporated company towns. It now sprawls across the narrow panhandle between Pennsylvania (east) and Ohio (west). In 1984 Weirton Steel was purchased by its employees. In addition to steel, other industries include coal mining, the manufacture of metal cans, metal stamping, and plating. Tomlinson Run State Park and Mountaineer Racetrack and Resort are nearby. Pop. (1990) city, 22,124; Steubenville-Weirton MSA, 142,523; (1998 est.) city, 21,206; (1996 est.) Steubenville-Weirton MSA, 138,315.