Here are ten interesting ways steel is used at sea.

Early Ships

In 1940, the construction of the world’s first all-welded ship, the SS Exchequer, was completed in Mississippi, US. The steel plates of the cargo vessel’s hull were welded end-to-end rather than overlapped and riveted—a technique that revolutionized shipbuilding at the time.

Since then, ships have been made almost exclusively of welded steel, thanks to the material’s affordability and lightweight properties.

Flood Protection

Steel plays a crucial role in protecting our lands from floods. Its durability and sheer strength make it an ideal underwater barrier to protect cities that are at high risk of flooding.

The Thames Barrier, for example, fortifies central London from floods caused by tidal surges. Weighing in at 3,700 tons, the barrier is made up of 10 steel gates and stretches 520 meters across the Thames River, the UK’s most famous waterway.

Artificial Reefs

Hurricane-resistant steel has been used to create hundreds of wave-resistant barriers that surround the shorelines of the Caribbean, American Gulf Coast and Southeast Asia.

Some of these steel reefs have been designed to force waves to break offshore and deposit their energy in a different area than directly on the coastline, thus protecting beaches. Others hold in sediment on beaches to prevent coastal erosion, while still others promote water activities like surfing.

Marine Life Preservation

What do you get when you toss some 25,000 decommissioned New York subway cars into the ocean? A marine life habitat, of course.

Primarily consisting of steel, the Redbird Reef off the eastern coast of the United States has functioned as a source of sanctuary and food for marine life, offering more viable conditions for the growth of nutrients and organisms than the sand bottom.

Meanwhile, other materials like steel slag have been used to promote marine forestation in damaged marine ecosystems.

Powering Renewable Energy

Steel is an essential material used in the development of tidal energy solutions worldwide, from the poles which secure turbines to the ground to their rotating blades. Considering the fact that tidal energy could eventually satisfy more than 20 percent of global energy demand, steel plays a key role in unlocking the renewable energy capacity of our oceans.

Similarly, steel makes up around 80 percent of all materials used to construct wind turbines that emit minimal carbon dioxide when producing energy.

Megaships

When it comes to building the world’s biggest megaships, there’s no material as favored by engineers than steel.

Take the Royal Caribbean International’s Harmony of the Seas cruise ship, for example. It was constructed with 227,000 tons of steel—enough material to build 31 Eiffel Towers. Standing upright, it is 210 feet tall, more than three times the height of London’s Olympic Stadium, and is nearly as long as four soccer fields combined.

Undersea Tunnels

Noting the comparable advantages undersea tunnels have over bridges, like their ability to divert traffic and not be affected by external factors, city planners began incorporating them into city layouts in the late 1800s.

The first notion of the Channel Tunnel, which connects England and France, was proposed in 1802, but didn’t become a reality until the 1960s. With 400 trains carrying 50,000 passengers and 54,000 tons of freight passing through it every day, steel reinforces other materials to keep the tunnel strong and sturdy.

Shipping

Ninety percent of global cargo is carried by sea. Because the size of steel ships and containers allows for enormous loads to be transported in a single trip, the majority of the 17 million shipping containers currently in use are made from steel.

Included among these shipping giants are Maersk’s Triple-E, the largest cargo ship in the world. It can fit approximately 18,000 shipping containers—enough space for 36,000 cars or 108 million pairs of sneakers!

Submarines

While submarine designs and oceanic capabilities have advanced over the centuries, one thing has remained constant—their steel construction.

Steel has the ability to withstand corrosion and avoid oxidizing reactions such as rust. It is also lightweight enough that it can be fast and effective in maneuvering underwater. As a result, the submarine’s steel body has enabled it to accomplish extraordinary expeditions, including James Cameron’s DEEPSEA CHALLENGER’s voyage to the deepest known part of the Earth.

Connecting the World

Steel is essential in the construction of canals. It is used to form the structure which supports the entire operation and is also utilized to make the locks so that they are tough enough to withstand extreme forces like water pressure.

The Panama Canal, for instance, is the largest canal in the world, with around 14,000 ships passing through it annually. Thanks to a system of large steel locks, the canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

This article is based on the #lovesteel materials published by the World Steel Association.

Submarines: The Ocean’s Steel Whales

Steel Solutions in Wind Power

Steel Wonders of the World: The Panama Canal

Water World: The Past, Present and Future of Undersea Tunnels

Making Waves in Ocean Conservation

Recycled Steel Changing the Way the World Uses Metal

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Thanks to its strong tensile properties, steel is a very practical material, as it can be reused again and again, from one product to the next, while consistently maintaining its inherent qualities. In fact, according to the most recent data compiled by the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), approximately 80% of steel used today has been previously recycled.

Eco-friendly and Economical Benefits

But durability isn’t the only thing that makes recycling steel so valuable. It’s eco-friendly and cost efficient, too. So much so that it takes 74% less energy to recycle steel than it does to make it from raw materials – enough to power almost a sixth of America’s homes for a year!

It’s also cheaper to reprocess steel than to mine iron ore, or to create new steel, which is an added bonus in today’s budget-conscious society.

How It Works

Typically, when a manufacturing product is no longer considered valuable to its owner, or the metal of a structure meets the end stages of its life, its steel components are picked apart as scraps. The scraps are then melted in high-temperature furnaces, which in turn liquefies the steel and burns off any remaining impurities. Once pure, the liquid metal is molded into new products, such as tools or engines.

Recently, however, some very clever minds have taken the way we use recycled steel to a whole new level.

Subway Cars Turned Underwater Reefs

Along the eastern seaboard, retired New York subway cars have found a new home on the floors of the ocean. And while it may seem that dumping these mammoth vehicles into the sea would be anything but helpful to the ecosystem, the trains that once transported New Yorkers across the Big Apple are transforming into habitats of millions of fish.

The project, which aimed to help the environment, was launched about 10 years ago by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

After being decommissioned, cleaned and stripped of all removable items, some 25,000 cars were transported by barges and dumped off the coast. Although the campaign is no longer in operation, the cars have since been transformed into artificial reefs.

These unlikely habitats continue to provide plenty of space for invertebrates to live, and act as a hideaway for fish seeking protection from predators. The reef also functions as a source of food, offering more viable conditions than the sand bottom for the growth of various nutrients and organisms.

Old Bridge Gets New Life

While the steel which was once used on land is now being repurposed in water on the East Coast, the reverse is happening on the opposite end of the country.

After 77 years of linking San Francisco to Oakland, California’s Bay Bridge remains to be an icon of the region. Its structure, however, was deemed “earthquake unsafe” after a 1989 quake destroyed part of it. In 2013, its replacement opened to traffic and plans to deconstruct the defective bridge were set.

When scraps of the 58,000-ton steel structure were sold and distributed around the country and abroad after its first of three deconstruction phases, members of the community spoke up, demanding that parts be set aside to be reused in the area.

The Oakland Museum, in coordination with the Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA), began to accept proposals for how the steel should be refurbished. Thus far, proposals have included everything from bus stops to rainwater catchment systems to sculptures that will retain the visual essence of the original bridge.

In a time when recycling is more important than ever, reprocessed steel is being reincarnated into structures of both function and form. Whether it be through urban sculptures or underwater habitats, recycled steel will continue to transform the way we see, use and better the world.