In 1848 John A. Roebling purchased land along the Delaware & Raritan Canal by South Broad Street for his wire rope business. Roebling designed the buildings and machinery and directed the company until his death in 1869, when his three sons Washington, Ferdinand and Charles took over. The Roeblings designed, built, supplied and erected cable and wire rope for landmark suspension bridges from the 1860's to the 1950's. The company also manufactured wire rope and related products for shipping, mining, construction (including the Panama Canal), electrical power transmission, cable cars, aircrafts, submarine netting, musical instruments elevators, slinkies, rulers and tape measures. By World War I, the factory was the largest wire rope plant in the world, employing several thousand workers.

The Chambersburg plant, known as the Upper Works, with buildings ranging date from 1885 to 1957, shows the effect of rebuilding campaigns linked to bridge projects and war production. Until 1915, these buildings were erected with masonry load bearing wall and gable roofs with monitor clerestories. After 1915 they were built with steel frame and concrete walls and flat roofs with saw-tooth and monitor skylights.

Peter Cooper established the Trenton Iron Company with a Rolling Mill for wire on the North side of Hamilton Avenue in 1850 and bought the land South of Hamilton Avenue in 1852 for a machine shop and foundry. American Steel & Wire Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel, purchased the complex in 1912, operating it until 1987. At its peak, American Steel & Wire employed 1,500 workers on this site.

The AS&W plant had less rebuilding and hence has many earlier and smaller buildings still standing. Dates range from the early 1850's to the 1950's. The mills along Hamilton Avenue have masonry load-bearing walls and timber frames, while those on the interior of the block were built after World War I with concrete and steel frames.