Bethlehem Iron Company · Bethlehem Steel Corporation
1857 CE2003 CE
America's second-largest steelmaker: it built the Golden Gate Bridge and armed two world wars with 1,121 warships, then went bankrupt in 2001 as foreign steel undercut it.
Born
1857 CE
Died
2003 CE
Lived
146 years
Dead for
23 yrs
At its peak
~300,000 employees during WWII; 2nd-largest US steelmaker
Cause of death
Replaced
Replaced by
International Steel Group (later ArcelorMittal)
The Obituary
Bethlehem Steel grew from the Bethlehem Iron Company, a Pennsylvania ironworks founded in 1857, into America’s second-largest steel producer and one of its biggest shipbuilders. Its structural steel raised the Golden Gate Bridge, Rockefeller Center, and Madison Square Garden, and its yards launched over a thousand warships in World War II. After the war, aging plants, high labor costs, and cheaper imported steel eroded its margins. It failed to modernize as minimills and foreign producers took share. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001, and in 2003 its remaining assets were sold to the International Steel Group.
Worth remembering
Its steel framed the Golden Gate Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, and Rockefeller Center.
During World War II its shipyards built 1,121 vessels, more than any other American company.
Gallery
The old blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel plant (now SteelStacks)BrettLewis88 · CC BY-SA 4.01881 sepia watercolor of the Bethlehem Steel works by Joseph PennellPublic domain
Watch
Bethlehem Steel: the people who built America — PBS39 Lehigh Valley
Sources
Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and its assets were acquired by International Steel Group in 2003 Wikipedia
Bethlehem Steel was the second-largest US steel producer and a major shipbuilder Encyclopaedia Britannica
During World War II, Bethlehem Steel's 15 shipyards produced more than 1,100 ships—including 380 vessels in 1943 alone—and the company accounted for almost one-third of the armor plate and gun forgings used by the United States in the war. Encyclopedia.com
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
