| The doors to the steelworks in Bethlehem, | | | | grown to 60,000. |
| Pennsylvania closed for the last time in 1995, bringing to | | | | In the early thirties Bethlehem Steel continued to grow |
| an end 140 years of steel-making in the town. Although | | | | through acquisition, buying steel companies on the |
| no longer in its spiritual home, Bethlehem Steel | | | | Pacific coast as well as McClintic-Marshall Corp., a |
| continues to produce Steel, but its major production | | | | major bridge and building construction company. This |
| facility is now based in Burns Harbor, Indiana. The | | | | was the golden era for American construction and |
| company has had its ups and downs, has been | | | | Bethlehem Steel was responsible for such landmark |
| involved in providing steel for the construction of many | | | | constructions as: the Golden Gate Bridge, U.S. |
| railroads, bridges and iconic buildings throughout | | | | Supreme Court, Rockefeller Plaza, Waldorf-Astoria |
| America and was the forerunner in the production of | | | | and the George Washington Bridge. |
| the steel girders used to build skyscrapers. | | | | During World War II Bethlehem Steel shifted all its |
| The first steel produced in Bethlehem was at the | | | | production into military hardware, employing close on |
| Saucona Iron Company, opened in 1857. Four years | | | | 300,000 workers of which 180,000 were directly |
| later the company changed its name to the Bethlehem | | | | involved in ship-building. Post-war, the company |
| Iron Company and in 1863 started mass production of | | | | returned to producing steel for US domestic projects, |
| iron railroad rails, used in the building of the | | | | as well as the military, and continued to thrive. |
| Transcontinental Railroad. Over the next forty years | | | | The 1960s saw steel imported to the USA reaching |
| contracts to supply steel were agreed with the US | | | | record levels, but Bethlehem still home-produced steel |
| Navy, and by the time that Charles M. Schwab was | | | | for such iconic structures as Madison Square Garden, |
| appointed chairman in 1904 Bethlehem Steel | | | | Newport Bridge and the second Delaware Memorial |
| Corporation not only had a huge plant in South | | | | Bridge. In 1973 Bethlehem Steel reported an income of |
| Bethlehem, but ironworks in Cuba and shipyards on | | | | $207 million, producing record levels of 23.7 million tons |
| both US coasts. | | | | of raw steel and 16.3million tons of finished steel. The |
| In 1908 the company started production of wide-flange | | | | company continued to thrive, but in the early 1980s |
| structural section steel, leading to a building revolution; | | | | imported steel was making more of an impact, which |
| those sections being used in the new phenomenon of | | | | forced a radical restructure of Bethlehem Steel, |
| skyscraper construction. Five years later Bethlehem | | | | resulting in a halving of the workforce over five years |
| Steel acquired the Fore Shipbuilding Company in | | | | in the mid-80s. Consolidation followed over the next |
| Quincy, Mass. to become one of the country's largest | | | | ten years and reluctantly the production facility at |
| shipbuilders. | | | | Bethlehem - where it all began - was shut down in |
| World War I provided Bethlehem Steel with a great | | | | 1995. |
| opportunity to expand. At the start of the conflict the | | | | Today, Bethlehem has recovered from the loss of its |
| company had an annual production capacity of 1.1 | | | | steelworks and is undergoing an economic and cultural |
| million tons and employed 15,600 workers. By 1925, | | | | renaissance. Hotels in Bethlehem once used by those |
| after supplying armor, ships, ordnance, guns and | | | | who had business at the steelworks are now |
| munitions for the US and Allied Forces during and | | | | re-inventing themselves as tourist and conference |
| immediately after the war, annual production grew to | | | | centers. The steel may be long gone in Bethlehem, but |
| 8.5 million tons and the company's workforce had | | | | the entrepreneurial spirit of its citizens is alive and well. |