Most major cities are founded along large rivers. Birmingham AL was not—it was a railroad station. And the major attraction here was iron.
Geographically, the area around Birmingham has three things that happen to go together: iron ore, limestone (which acts as a “flux” to take the impurities out of iron) and coal (which can be turned into coke as fuel for smelters). Because of this, Birmingham became one of the largest centers in the South for producing iron.
In 1881, local businessman James Withers Sloss built an iron-smelting plant on what was then the edge of town. It was updates in the 20s, then ran until the 1960s, when declining demand and rising costs closed it down. The plant was donated to the city of Birmingham, which refurbished it and opened it in 1981 as a city park and a National Historic Site.
Some photos from a visit.