The tour highlighted three of the top industries in the Ohio Valley, including chemical creation, metal making, and power production.

The first plant NEWS9 toured was PPG's Natrium Plant in Marshall County.

"This plant takes salt and water, liquifies it and makes chlorine, caustic soda, hydrogen and downstream products from that," said the plant's manager, Jim Rock.

The plant produces at least 2,000 tons of material per day and employs more than 500 workers.

"Some markets go up or down," said Rock. "We've been able to leverage other markets to keep us solid."

Then, NEWS9 crews stopped at First Energy's W. H. Sammis Power Plant in Stratton.

"I think the village has a population of 250," said plant engineer Joseph Doraski. "And we employ 450 here."

Doraski said coal was the main ingredient to start producing power at the Stratton plant. Thanks to three recently installed scrubbers, Doraski said the energy is produced in a cleaner way.

"Being state-of-the-art and being very clean this facility's going to be here for a long term," said Doraski.

NEWS9 toured the ArcelorMittal plant in Weirton to see tin being made. The ArcelorMittal plant employs 900 workers.

"From an employment level, I think our jobs are going to stay around where they are now," Union Local 2911 President Mark Glyptis said.

Glyptis said although officials may not expect to hire more people at their facility, they do expect to see growth on their property.

"Some of the land that was once part of our steel mill is being sold," said Glyptis. "I think that land will provide jobs for the future."

The Ormet Aluminum Plant in Monroe County was the last plant that was toured by NEWS9 crews.

On a typical day, company officials said they produce 1.5 million pounds of aluminum.

"As we're seeing the economy improve, we've restarted some shutdown capacity and brought 140 people back to work," said Mike Griffin, Ormet Corporation's vice president of operations.

Company officials said they hope to cut more costs by opening a sister facility in Louisiana.

"That would supply us with all the raw materials, the alumina raw materials, for this facility," said Griffin.

Workers at all four plants said the plants that line the Ohio River prove that they are the Ohio Valley's backbone.

"There is a big ripple effect," said Rock. "We pay a lot of taxes, employment taxes and other taxes, to the state and the county."

"You can expect to see anywhere from two to four trickle-down jobs from a good industrial job like this," said Griffin.