The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 1 ...

. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to bef ...

companies. At the height of its success and productivity, the company was a symbol of American manufacturing leadership in the world, and its decline and ultimate liquidation in the late 20th century is similarly cited as an example of America's diminished

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to ...

leadership. From its founding in 1857 through its 2003 dissolution, Bethlehem Steel's headquarters and primary steel mill manufacturing facilities were based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. The company's steel was used in the construction of many of America's largest and most famed structures. Among major buildings, Bethlehem produced steel for

28 Liberty Street 28 Liberty Street, formerly known as One Chase Manhattan Plaza, is a 60-story International style skyscraper in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, between Nassau, Liberty, William, and Pine Streets. The building was design ...

, the Chrysler Building, the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylv ...

, Rockefeller Center, and the

Waldorf Astoria The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultze ...

hotel in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Merchandise Mart The Merchandise Mart (or the Merch Mart, or the Mart) is a commercial building located in downtown Chicago, Illinois. When it was opened in 1930, it was the largest building in the world, with of floor space. The Art Deco structure is loca ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Among major bridges, Bethlehem steel was used in constructing the George Washington Bridge and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in New York City, the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, and the

Peace Bridge The Peace Bridge is an international bridge between Canada and the United States at the east end of Lake Erie at the source of the Niagara River, about upriver of Niagara Falls. It connects Buffalo, New York, in the United States to Fo ...

between Buffalo and Fort Erie, Ontario. Bethlehem Steel played an instrumental role in manufacturing U.S.

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster ...

s and other military weapons used in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and later by the Allied forces in ultimately winning

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Over 1,100 Bethlehem Steel-manufactured warships were built for use in defeating

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

in World War II. Historians cite Bethlehem Steel's ability to quickly manufacture warships and other military equipment as decisive factors in American victories in both world wars. Bethlehem Steel's roots trace to an iron-making company organized in 1857 in Bethlehem, which was later named the Bethlehem Iron Company. In 1899, the owners of the iron company founded Bethlehem Steel Company and, five years later, Bethlehem Steel Corporation was created to be the steelmaking company's corporate parent. Bethlehem Steel survived the earliest declines in American steel industry beginning in the 1970s. In 1982, however, the company suspended most of its steelmaking operations after posting a loss of $1.5 billion, attributable to increased foreign competition, rising labor and pensions costs, and other factors. The company declared bankruptcy in 2001 and final dissolution in 2003 when its remaining assets were sold to International Steel Group.

History

Establishment

In 1857, what ultimately became Bethlehem Steel, was launched as the Saucona Iron Company in

by Augustus Wolle.Davis (1877), "Bethlehem Iron Company", ''History of Northampton County, Pennsylvania'', Philadelphia and Reading: Peter Fritts, Chapter XLV, p. 212–213 That same year, the

Panic of 1857 The Panic of 1857 was a financial panic in the United States caused by the declining international economy and over-expansion of the domestic economy. Because of the invention of the telegraph by Samuel F. Morse in 1844, the Panic of 1857 was ...

, a national financial crisis, halted the company's further organization. But the organization subsequently restarted, its site was moved elsewhere to South Bethlehem, and the company's name was changed to the Bethlehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company. On June 14, 1860, the board of directors of the fledgling company elected Alfred Hunt president. On May 1, 1861, the company's title was changed again, this time to the Bethlehem Iron Company. Construction of the first

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...

began on July 1, 1861 was operationalized on January 4, 1863. The first rolling mill was built between the spring of 1861 and the summer of 1863 with the first

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

rails being rolled on September 26, 1863. A machine shop, in 1865, and another blast furnace, in 1867, were completed. During its early years, the company produced rails for the rapidly expanding railroads and armor plating used by the U.S. Navy.

Growth

The company continued to prosper during the early 1880s, but its share of the rail market began to decline in the face of competition from growing

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

and Scranton-based firms such as the Carnegie Steel Company and Lackawanna Steel. The nation's decision to rebuild the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

with steam-driven, steel-hulled warships reshaped Bethlehem Iron Company's destiny. Following the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, the U.S. Navy quickly downsized after the end of hostilities as national energies were redirected toward settling the West and rebuilding the war-ravaged South. Almost no new ordnance was produced, and new technology was neglected. By 1881, international incidents highlighted the poor condition of the U.S. fleet and the need to rebuild it to protect U.S. military capabilities, trade, and prestige. In 1883, U.S. Secretary of the Navy

William E. Chandler William Eaton Chandler (December 28, 1835November 30, 1917), also known as Bill Chandler, was a lawyer who served as United States Secretary of the Navy and as a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire. In the 1880s, he was a member of the Republican " ...

and U.S. Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln appointed Lt. William Jaques to the Gun Foundry Board and Jaques was sent on several fact-finding tours of European armament makers. On one of these trips, he formed business ties with the firm of

Joseph Whitworth Sir Joseph Whitworth, 1st Baronet (21 December 1803 – 22 January 1887) was an English engineer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. In 1841, he devised the British Standard Whitworth system, which created an accepted standard for scre ...

of Manchester, England. He returned to America as Whitworth's agent and, in 1885, was granted an extended furlough to pursue this personal interest. Jaques was aware that the U.S. Navy would soon solicit bids for the production of heavy guns and other products such as armor that would be needed to further expand the fleet. Jaques contacted the Bethlehem Iron Company with a proposal to serve as an intermediary between it and the Whitworth Company, so Bethlehem Iron could erect a heavy-forging plant to produce ordnance. In 1885,

John F. Fritz John F. Fritz (August 21, 1822 – February 13, 1913) was an American pioneer of iron and steel technologyRobert H. Sayre, Elisha Packer Wilbur (president of

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, ...

), William Thurston, and

Joseph Wharton Joseph Wharton (March 3, 1826 – January 11, 1909) was an American industrialist. He was involved in mining, manufacturing and education. He founded the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, co-founded the Bethlehem Steel com ...

(founder of the

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

) to meet with Jaques in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. In early 1886, Bethlehem Iron and the Whitworth Company executed a contract. In spring 1886, Congress passed a naval appropriations bill that authorized the construction of two armored second-class battleships, one protected cruiser, one first-class torpedo boat, and the complete rebuilding and modernization of two Civil War-era monitors. The two second-class battleships (the and the ) both had large-caliber guns (12-inch and 10-inch respectively) and heavy armor plating. Bethlehem secured both the forging and armor contracts on June 28, 1887. Between 1888 and 1892, the Bethlehem Iron Company completed the first U.S. heavy-forging plant. It was designed by John Fritz with the assistance of Russell Wheeler Davenport, who had joined Bethlehem Iron in 1888. By fall 1890, Bethlehem Iron was delivering gun forging to the U.S. Navy and was completing facilities to provide armor plating. During the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Bethlehem Steel provided the iron used in the creation of a 140-foot all-steel tower to support the world's first Ferris wheel, a structure. The iron was manufactured in Bethlehem Steel's

s and represented the largest single piece of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuri ...

ever constructed at the time. In 1898, Frederick Winslow Taylor joined Bethlehem Steel as a management consultant in order to solve an expensive machine shop capacity problem. Taylor and Maunsel White, with a team of assistants, applied a series of management principles established by Taylor, which would later come to be known as

scientific management Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engine ...

and was used in increasing mass production. The Bethlehem Iron Company was very successful and profitable, and the corporate management of the Bethlehem Iron Company believed that it could be even more profitable. To accomplish that goal, the corporate ownership of the Bethlehem Iron Company switched to steel production, and the company's name was formally challenged to Bethlehem Steel Company.

Bethlehem Steel Company

Establishment and involvement with the Bethlehem Iron Company

In 1899, Bethlehem Steel Company was established. This was the first company to carry the name Bethlehem Steel. The Bethlehem Steel Company (also known as Bethlehem Steel Works) was incorporated to take over all liabilities of the Bethlehem Iron Company.Andrew Garn,
Bethlehem Steel", 1999 Biography
(1999). The Bethlehem Iron Company and the Bethlehem Steel Company were separate companies under the same ownership. The Bethlehem Steel Company leased the properties that were owned by the Bethlehem Iron Company. In 1901,

Charles M. Schwab Charles Michael Schwab (February 18, 1862 – September 18, 1939) was an American steel magnate. Under his leadership, Bethlehem Steel became the second-largest steel maker in the United States, and one of the most important heavy manufacturer ...

(no relation to the stockbroker Charles R. Schwab), purchased the Bethlehem Steel Company and made Samuel Broadbent its vice president.Robert T. Swaine,
The Cravath firm and its predecessors, 1819-1947," Volume 1
(1948). During this time, the company's lease with the Bethlehem Iron Company came to an end as the Bethlehem Steel Company gained control of all properties from the Bethlehem Iron Company and the Bethlehem Iron Company ceased operations.

Operating as a subsidiary of the United States Shipbuilding Company

Schwab transferred his ownership of the Bethlehem Steel Company to the

United States Steel Corporation United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...

(U.S. Steel), the company he was president of. This period was brief; Schwab repurchased Bethlehem Steel Company, then sold it to the United States Shipbuilding Company. The United States Shipbuilding Company owned Bethlehem Steel Company only a brief time. The United States Shipbuilding Company was in turmoil; its subsidiaries, including the Bethlehem Steel Company, contributed to the United States Shipbuilding Company's problems. Schwab again became involved with Bethlehem Steel Company through the parent company, the United States Shipbuilding Company. The United States Shipbuilding Company planned in 1903 to reorganize as the Bethlehem Steel and Shipbuilding Company, which would be the second company to use the name Bethlehem Steel. However, the United States Shipbuilding Company was not reorganized as the Bethlehem Steel and Shipbuilding Company; instead a plan was drawn up for a new company to be formed to replace the United States Shipbuilding Company. The new company was initially to be named Bethlehem Steel and Shipbuilding Company, but, in 1904, assumed instead the name Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Bethlehem Steel Corporation

Establishment and early growth

The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was formed by Schwab, who had recently resigned from U.S. Steel, and by

, who founded the

Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

. Schwab became the first president and first chairman of the board of directors. After its formation, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation purchased the Bethlehem Steel Company and its remaining subsidiaries from the United States Shipbuilding Company. The Bethlehem Steel Company became a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, though the Bethlehem Steel Company also had subsidiaries of its own. Bethlehem Steel Corporation became the second largest steel provider in the United States. Both the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Bethlehem Steel Corporation existed simultaneously after 1904 until the 1960s, when the two companies were merged into the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Bethlehem Steel Corporation installed the gray rolling mill and produced the first wide-flange structural shapes to be made in America. These shapes were partly responsible for ushering in the age of the

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...

and establishing Bethlehem Steel as the leading supplier of steel to the

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

industry. In the early 1900s, Samuel Broadbent led an initiative to diversify the company. The corporation branched out from steel, with iron mines in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

and shipyards around the country. In 1913, under Broadbent, Bethlehem Steel acquired the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Massachusetts, assuming the role of one of the world's major shipbuilders. In 1917, it incorporated its shipbuilding division as Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation Ltd. In 1922, Bethlehem Steel purchased the Lackawanna Steel Company, which included the

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...

and extensive

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

holdings.

1930s and 1940s

USS Massachusetts BB-59 5-12-1942 Boston Harbor

During

and

, Bethlehem Steel was a major supplier of armor plate and ordnance to the U.S. armed forces, including armor plate and large-caliber guns for the U.S. Navy, and was influential to U.S. victories in both wars. Bethlehem Steel "was the most important to America's national defense of any company in the past century. We wouldn't have won World War I and World War II without it," historian Lance Metz told ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' in 2003. In the 1930s, the company also manufactured the steel sections and parts for the

and built for ''Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales'' ( YPF), a new oil refinery in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, which was the tenth-largest in the world. During World War II, as much as 70 percent of airplane cylinder forgings, one-quarter of the armor plate for warships, and one-third of the big cannon forgings for the U.S armed forces were turned out by Bethlehem Steel. Bethlehem Steel ranked seventh among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's 15 shipyards produced a total of 1,121 ships, more than any other builder during the war and nearly one-fifth of the U.S. Navy's two-ocean fleet. Its shipbuilding operations employed as many as 180,000 persons, the lion's share of the company's total employment of 300,000. Eugene Grace was president of Bethlehem Steel from 1916 to 1945, and chairman of the board from 1945 until his retirement in 1957. Grace orchestrated Bethlehem Steel's World War II wartime efforts. In 1943, he promised U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Bethlehem Steel would manufacture one ship per day, and he ultimately exceeded that commitment by 15 ships. World War II, however, drained Bethlehem of much of its male workforce. The company hired female employees to guard and work on the factory floor and in the company offices. After the war, female workers were promptly fired in favor of male counterparts.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
On Liberty Fleet Day, September 27, 1941, then U.S. President Roosevelt was present at the launching of the first Liberty ship SS Patrick Henry at Bethlehem's

Bethlehem Fairfield Shipyard The Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard of Baltimore, Maryland, was a shipyard in the United States from 1941 until 1945. Located on the south shore of the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River which serves as the Baltimore Harbor, it was owned by the Be ...

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...

. Also launched that same day were the Liberty SS ''James McKay'' at

Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard Maryland Steel, in Sparrows Point, Maryland, US, was founded in 1887. It was acquired by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in 1916 and renamed as the Bethlehem Sparrows Point Shipyard. The shipyard was sold in 1997 to Baltimore Marine Industries I ...

in Sparrows Point, Maryland, and the emergency vessel SS ''Sinclair Superflame'' at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1946, Bethlehem Steel signed a contract with mining company LKAB to contribute to the recovery of the post-World War II recovery of the iron ore industry in northern Sweden.

1950s and 1960s

Following the war's end, the Bethlehem Steel plant continued to supply a wide variety of structural shapes for the construction trades. Galvanized sheet steel under the name BETHCON was widely produced for use as duct work or spiral conduit. Additionally, the company produced forged products for defense, power generation, and steel-producing companies. From 1949 to 1952, Bethlehem Steel had a contract with the

U.S. federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a f ...

to roll

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

fuel rods for nuclear reactors in Bethlehem Steel's

Lackawanna, New York Lackawanna is a city in Erie County, New York, United States, just south of the city of Buffalo in western New York State. The population was 19,949 at the 2020 census. It is one of the fastest-growing cities in New York, growing in populati ...

plant. Workers were not aware of the dangers of the hazardous substance and were not given protective equipment. Some workers have since attempted to receive compensation under a year 2000 radiation-exposure law. The law required the U.S. Labor Department to compensate workers up to $150,000 if they developed cancer later in life, provided their work history involved enough radiation exposure to significantly increase their cancer risk. The Bethlehem Steel workers have not been awarded this compensation because the radiation dose involved in processing fresh uranium fuel is low and produces a small risk relative to the baseline risk. The larger danger in processing uranium is chemical poisoning from the heavy metal, which does not produce cancer.) The steel industry in the U.S. prospered during and after World War II, while the steel industries in Germany and Japan lay devastated by allied bombardments. Bethlehem Steel's success pinnacled in the 1950s as the company began manufacturing 23 million tons of steel annually. In 1958, the company's president, Arthur B. Homer, was the highest-paid U.S. business executive, and the firm built its largest plant between 1962 and 1964 in Burns Harbor, Indiana. In 1967, the company lost its bid to provide the steel for the original World Trade Center. The contracts, a single one of which was for 50,000 tons of steel, went to competitors in Seattle, St. Louis, New York and Illinois.

1970s through 1990s

BETHLEHEM STEEL PLANT ON THE LAKE ERIE WATERFRONT JUST BELOW BUFFALO - NARA - 549508

The U.S. global leadership in steel manufacturing lasted about two decades during which the U.S. steel industry operated with little foreign competition. But eventually, foreign firms were rebuilt with modern techniques such as continuous casting, while profitable U.S. companies resisted modernization. Bethlehem experimented with continuous casting but never fully adopted the practice. Meanwhile, the age of Bethlehem Steel workers were increasing, and the ratio of retirees to workers was rising, meaning that the value created by each worker had to cover a greater portion of pension costs than before. Former top manager Eugene Grace had failed to adequately invest in the company's pension plans during the 1950s. When the company was at its peak, pension contributions that should have been made were not. As a result, the company encountered difficulty when it faced rising pension costs combined with diminishing profits and increased global competition. By the 1970s, imported foreign steel was proving cheaper than domestically produced steel, and Bethlehem Steel faced growing competition from mini-mills and smaller-scale operations that could sell steel at lower prices. In 1982, Bethlehem Steel reported a loss of US$1.5 billion and shut down much of its operations. The company's profitability returned briefly in 1988, but restructuring and shutdowns continued through the 1990s. In the mid-1980s, demand for the plant's structural products began to diminish and new competition entered the marketplace. Lighter construction styles, due in part to lower-height construction styles (i.e., low-rise buildings) did not require the heavy structural grades produced at the

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital ...

plant. In 1991, Bethlehem Steel Corporation discontinued

mining it had been conducting under the name BethEnergy and the company exited the railroad car business two years later, in 1993. In 1992, the Johnstown plants of the Bethlehem Steel, which had been founded in 1852 by The Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown and were purchased by Bethlehem Steel in 1923, were forced into closure. By the end of 1995, Bethlehem Steel closed steel-making at its main Bethlehem plant. After roughly 140 years of metal production at in Bethlehem, Bethlehem Steel ceased its Bethlehem operations. Two years later, in 1997, Bethlehem Steel Corporation ceased shipbuilding activities in an attempt to preserve its steel-making operations. In 2001, however, Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy and, in 2003, the company dissolved.

Closing and bankruptcy

In 1998, after denied pension benefits, a lawsuit was filed in the Third Court of Appeals in

. The case, Lawrence Hollyfield, Fiduciary to the Estate of Collins Hollyfield v. Pension Plan of Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Subsidiary Companies, was settled in favor of Hollyfield in 2001. It led to a class action lawsuit filed by Bethlehem Steel's workers union soon thereafter. This settlement led to PBGC assuming all Bethlehem Steel pension obligations, representing the largest such pension liability assumption in U.S. history. In 2001, Bethlehem Steel filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...

. It became the 25th American steelmaking company in the span of four years (1998-2001) to file for bankruptcy protection. In 2003, the company was dissolved with its remaining assets, including six plants, acquired by the International Steel Group. International Steel Group, in turn, was acquired by Mittal Steel in 2005, which then merged with Arcelor to become

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second ...

in 2006. Despite closing its local operations, Bethlehem Steel tried to reduce the significant economic and social impact on

and the Lehigh Valley area, announcing plans to revitalize the south side of Bethlehem where its headquarters and primary plant had existed since the mid-19th century. The company hired consultants to develop conceptual plans on the reuse of the massive property, and a consensus emerged to rename the site

Bethlehem Works Bethlehem Works is a development site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, based on land formerly owned by Bethlehem Steel. After Bethlehem Steel discontinued its steelmaking activities at the main Bethlehem plant in 1995 after about 140 years of meta ...

and to use the land for cultural, recreational, educational, entertainment, and retail development. The National Museum of Industrial History, in association with the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

and the Bethlehem Commerce Center, consisting of of prime industrial property in Bethlehem would be erected on the site along with a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...

and a large retail and entertainment complex. In 2007, the Bethlehem Steel property was sold to Sands BethWorks with plans to build a casino where the plant once stood. Construction began in fall 2007, and the casino was completed in 2009. Ironically, due to a global steel shortage at the time, the casino had difficulty finding the 16,000 tons of structural steel needed for construction of the $600 million casino complex. The site of the company's original plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is home to SteelStacks, an arts and entertainment district. The plant's rusted five blast furnaces were left standing and serve as a backdrop for the new campus. SteelStacks currently features the ArtsQuest Center, a contemporary performing arts center, the Wind Creek Bethlehem casino resort (formerly Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem), a gambling emporium, and new studios for WLVT-TV, the Lehigh Valley's PBS affiliate. The area includes three outdoor music venues: Levitt Pavilion is a free music venue featuring lawn seating for up to 2,500 people; Air Products Town Square at Steelstacks; and PNC Plaza, which hosts concerts. Levitt Pavilion and the casino resort are connected via the Hoover-Mason Trestle linear park. On November 9, 2016, a warehouse being used as a recycling facility that was part of the Bethlehem Steel complex in

caught fire and burned down. On May 19, 2019,

Martin Tower Martin Tower was a 21-story, building at 1170 8th Avenue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was the tallest building in both Bethlehem and the greater Lehigh Valley, taller than the PPL Building in Allentown. Martin Tower was placed on the Nation ...

, Bethlehem Steel's former corporate headquarters building in West Bethlehem, was demolished. Bethlehem Steel's corporate records are housed at the

Hagley Museum and Library The Hagley Museum and Library is a nonprofit educational institution in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, near Wilmington. Covering more than along the banks of the Brandywine Creek, the museum and grounds include the first du Po ...

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Unami language, Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North ...

and at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem.

Shipyards

Electric multiple units

In 1931 and 1932, Bethlehem Steel manufactured 38

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number ...

carriages for the Reading Company.

Freight cars

From 1923 to 1991, Bethlehem Steel was one of the world's leading producers of railroad freight cars following their purchase of Midvale Steel, whose railcar division was located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem Steel Freight Car Division pioneered the use of aluminum in freight car construction. The Johnstown plant was purchased from Bethlehem Steel through a management buyout in 1991, creating Johnstown America Industries.

Influence on American landmarks

George Washington Bridge from New Jersey-edit

Bethlehem Steel manufactured the steel for many of the country's most prominent landmarks: * Bridges: ** George Washington Bridge **

** Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; Staten Island tower. * Buildings: ** Alcatraz Island **

One Chase Manhattan Plaza 28 Liberty Street, formerly known as One Chase Manhattan Plaza, is a 60-story International style skyscraper in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, between Nassau, Liberty, William, and Pine Streets. The building was desig ...

53,000-ton steel frame. ** Rockefeller Center ** Waldorf Astoria hotel * Dams: ** Bonneville Dam **

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerho ...

** Hoover Dam * Railways: ** San Francisco Municipal Railway Bethlehem Steel fabricated the largest

electric generator In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts motive power ( mechanical energy) or fuel-based power (chemical energy) into electric power for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam turbines, g ...

shaft in the world, produced for

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

in the 1950s, and the steel used for the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island.

In popular culture

Music

*In 2012,

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succ ...

, a three-piece

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produ ...

band, named itself after the company to honor its legacy.Kohn, Danie
"The Leap from Buffalo to Brooklyn Brought Bethlehem Steel to Their Solid Sound"
''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

''. Retrieved December 15, 2015 *Also in 2012, the song "Bethlehem Steel" by Nanci Griffith, one of the tracks on her album ''

Intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, thei ...

'', mourned the company's closure. *In 1982,

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since th ...

released "Allentown," a song depicting the lives of steelworkers in the twin cities of Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. "The subject of the song is the demise of the manufacturing industry in the United States. With the closing of Bethlehem Steel a generation of people were left jobless and depressed, wanting to leave but still clinging to the glory their parents were able to achieve."

Sports

Bethlehem Steel F.C. (1907–1930) Bethlehem Steel Football Club (1907–1930) was one of the most successful early American Association football, soccer clubs. Known as the Bethlehem Football Club from 1907 until 1915 when it became the Bethlehem Steel Football Club, the team w ...

, sponsored by the Bethlehem Steel corporation, was one of the most successful early American soccer clubs. * Philadelphia Union II is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team that is the official affiliate of the

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in Chester, Pennsylvania. The Union compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the club began playing in 2010 ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

. The club was founded and formerly based in

, where it was known as Bethlehem Steel FC in honor of the original club. *In February 2013, the

unveiled a third uniform that honors and harks back to the original Bethlehem Steel F.C. The kit is primarily black with white trim and features a sublimated Union emblem and a Bethlehem Steel FC jock tag.

Gallery

Image:Bethlehem Steel Corporation 1936 Specimen Stock Certificate.jpg, 1936 specimen stock certificate #0000 Image:Bethlehemsteel01.jpg, Bethlehem Steel Corporation's flagship manufacturing facility in

Image:Bethlehem177.JPG, "Bethlehem 177" railway gun on display at Museu Militar Conde de Linhares, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Image:Mittal Burns Harbor.jpg, The Burns Harbor, Indiana, plant built by Bethlehem Steel Image:Sparrows Point Steel Plant.jpg, The

at Sparrows Point, Maryland, one of the company's primary steel making and shipbuilding plants Image:Bethlehemsteel40.jpg, Demolition of part of the original facility in Bethlehem in 2007 Image:Last blast furnace, Bethlehem Steel.jpg, Blast furnace A at the flagship plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 2009. Image:Levitt pavilion.jpg, The Levitt Pavilion at SteelStacks, the former Bethlehem Steel site, is being prepared for a show. File:Former Bethlehem Steel HQ Oct 11.JPG, Former Bethlehem Steel Company Headquarters Building, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, October 2011 File:Interior view of projectile shop ^1, machining 3 inch shells. Bethlehem Steel Company, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehe - NARA - 533709.tif, Projectile shop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Image:OldBethelemSteelHeadquartersInSanFranciscoAt20thAndIllinois.jpg, Former Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation headquarters in San Francisco File:Bethlehem Steel (18).JPG, One of the few buildings that have been preserved

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Hall, P. J. (1915). "History of South Bethlehem, Pa." ''Semi-centennial, the borough of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1865–1915''. Quinlan Printing Co. pp. 12–13.

External links

Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture

Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Bethlehem Ship Corporation photograph collection
at

Photos of the abandoned plant in Bethlehem Pennsylvania

Corporate website
(Internet Archive snapshot from 2000-12-03) {{Authority control Steel companies of the United States Ironworks and steel mills in Pennsylvania Companies based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Industrial buildings and structures in Pennsylvania American companies established in 1857 Manufacturing companies established in 1857 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2003 1857 establishments in Pennsylvania 2003 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Former components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average ArcelorMittal Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001 Sparrows Point, Maryland Economic history of Pennsylvania Defunct manufacturing companies based in Pennsylvania History of Northampton County, Pennsylvania