Houston TX: Armco Steel Works

(Satellite, Armco is long gone, but the legacy of steel production is evident)

Texas had iron ore deposits that were used as early as 1855. "In 1941 and 1942, Sheffield Steel of Texas, a division of ARMCO (the American Rolling Mill Company), built a steel mill on the Houston Ship Channel that used scrap metal. Two years later Sheffield expanded these facilities into an integrated steel mill with open-hearth furnaces, coke ovens, a blooming mill, a plate mill, and a blast furnace. The plant subsequently used Texas and Mexican ores to make pig iron." [tshaonline-iron&steel] Actually, the Defense Plant Corp. built the plant, but Sheffield Steel operated it. Armco bought it in 1956. It shutdown in 1983. [upi]

Blair Pittman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons and National Archives

Raymond Boothe posted
Armco Steel Corporation-Houston, Texas Works-Oct 22, 1965: View of Blast Furnace No. 1 Armco photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe collection).

I found this location by going upstream along the Ship Channel. The top photo and a satellite image confirms the location.

1955 Jacinto City and Pasadena Quads @ 1:24,000

Steelton, PA: Cliffs/Bethlehem Steel Foundry

(Satellite)

The Eureka Iron company in Wyandotte, MI, was the first iron plant to install a commercial grade Kelly/Bessemer convertor in America in 1864. But this was the first plant that was built to make steel instead of iron.

Roz Christopherson posted
Bessemer converter at Pennsylvania Steel Company, Steelton, PA (circa ~1895)

This is a little better copy.

Kevin Peterson posted
A beautiful photograph of the employees and machinery (and Mustaches) at the Pennsylvania Steel Company, Steelton, PA, circa 1895.

Michael Stilwell: It was bought by Bethlehem. Bethlehem printed this picture in its publications.

Randy Wilson commented on Roz' post
The outside of the building...
Wade Spooner: Randy Wilson There's a 21st Century bloom reheating furnace standing on that site today.

Bill Comrey posted

Thanks for allowing me to join this Page dedicated to employees / families of people associated with the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Steelton PA.  

My brother Dennis Comrey worked at the Bethlehem Steelton Plant for a career 1970 on for 30+ years. My mom Ruth Comrey-Reese was one of the first women hired to take a hard hat and work with the guys in the Pipe Mill in the mid 1970s. And I was the Treasurer/CEO of the United Steelworkers of America Credit Union that served the employees of the Bethlehem Steelton Plant, from 1977 to 1984. We met many great people who were our fellow workers and became lifelong friends. Names, Dennis Comrey for 30+years as a Mill Carpenter, Ruth Comrey-Reese for 15 years in the Pipe Mill (she married Walter Reese, Crane Operator) (Walt worked there for a 35-year career 1960 to 1995, and me at the USWA Credit Union's office in Harrisburg, PA for 7 years.  Here's an old photo I have stored in my home computer.  I'm not sure of the date, but whenever I flew in and out of the Harrisburg International Airport, I'd look out of the window of this majestic steel plant that had provided steel from skyscrapers in NYC to steel used to build the Golden Gate Bridge (my wife and I lived one mile from the GGB from 1969 to 1971).

Tom Martin posted the question: "Quick question that I have needed an answer to for a while. There used to be a Bethlehem facility on the banks of the Susquehanna river just outside of Harrisburg, Pa. What was the name of the facility and what did it do? The facility was visible from the Pa. Turnpike."

Steel Plant Museum of Western New York: Tom Martin That's the Steelton Plant, which is currently operating. Cliffs makes rail and Dura-Bond makes pipe.

Pat McCon: Tom Martin - The building that abutted the Turnpike is gone, as is a large part of the mill. Built in 1866 as the Pennsylvania Steel Company, it was the first steel mill in the US.

National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted on Sep 20, 2022
Pennsylvania Steel Company was America’s first steel company. In 1868, the site became the first in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to the process of making steel. Visit the online exhibit at https://steelmuseum.org/pais300_exhibit_2017/steelton.cfm
Bill Gailey posted
Bethlehem Steel Steelton Pa around 1930.
Michael Maitland: How are these two plants doing nowadays?
Alex Yates: Michael Maitland we are still running. I work there.
[Update: I'm seeing posts in May 2025 that Cliffs is closing the plant.]
John Groves posted

Image caption: Steelton plant about 1930, source unknown.

A brief historical facilities profile 

Bethlehem Steel Company

Steelton, PA

Operated by Bethlehem Steel as Pennsylvania Steel Technologies Inc.

BF 1873, Bessemer 1867, OH 1875.

1960 lineup:

BF A 19'8", 900 tpd

BF B 25'0", 1,3500 tpd

BF E 19'6", 850 tpd

1960 BF capacity 1.800 Mtpa

No.1 BF built 1873, remodeled 1883, closed around 1917-19.

No.2 built 1876, remodeled 1877, closed early-1920s.

No.3 built 1884, rebuilt 1907, renamed C, closed 1927.

No.4 built 1884, rebuilt 1908, renamed D, closed 1927.

(Nos.1 to 4 in 1890 were each 11' hearths)

A built 1918, rebuilt 1922, 1948, 1953, closed 1961.

B built 1917, rebuilt 1929, 1949, closed 1961.

E built 1916, rebuilt 1941, 1949, closed 1961.

Original Bessemer shop built 1967, rebuilt 1881 (3 x 10t, 0.4 Mtpa), replaced 1913 by new shop with 3 x 20t for duplexing with 3 x 200t tilting OHs. Bessemer shop closed 1929.

First 10 small OHs built 1875 to 1900.

(12 OHs in 1894, including 2 tilting 1890, 6 tilting 1893)

6 OH x 138t 0.710 Mtpa (built 1907)

4 OH x 276t 0.773 Mtpa (built 1913, enlarged mid-1950s)

rail mill (1915) now 1.16 Mtpa (replaced original 1868 rail mill), 

20" bar mill (built as billet mill 1887, rebuilt as bar mill 1914)

Post 1960s changes;

All BFs closed 1961.

1968 OHs replaced by 3 EAF x 150t (1.500 Mtpa), replaced in turn in 1994 by 1 DC arc furnace x 140t (1.100 Mtpa),  linked to a ladle furnace and vacuum degassers ($70M).

1983 3-strand bloom caster, 370 x 600 mm, (1.329 Mtpa),

1994 inline rail head hardening.

1961 14"/11"re-bar mill (0.680 Mtpa), closed mid-1990s.

In 1989 Bethlehem Steel purchased the modern rail mill built in 1981 by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel at its Monessen Works near Pittsburgh. When Wheeling- Pittsburgh filed for bankruptcy in 1985 it closed the entire Monessen integrated plant. The $150M universal rail mill (0.400 Mtpa) was repossessed by the US Government which had provided a $95M loan guarantee. Bethlehem's purchase of the rail mill was apparently defensive, to prevent any competitor from acquiring it. It was never recommissioned.

In 2003 the new owner ISG had proposed closing Steelton but the US Government had vetoed this on national security grounds. The modern efficient melt shop was needed to produce very large forging ingots for the now independent Lehigh Forge at Bethlehem, which produces forgings for the new generation of larger, faster and deeper diving nuclear submarines.

Researched and authored by John Groves, 2020

[Summarizing some comments on John's post to remove an error in the original comments. The above freight car is used to ship hot ingots cast in Steelton to Lehigh Heavy Forge. The trip is 90 miles, and Norfolk Southern makes their cars a priority. The cars have a hook up for a gas burner.]

Debby Garlic posted
Bethlehem Steel 1965 Steelton

Carl Lipski commented on a post

It looks like just the foundations of the coke plant is left. The plant has some serious dust control equipment.

Satellite

Randy Zerance posted
Bethlehem Steel Plant in Steelton, PA.
Paul Moore: Worked at this plant for 44 years thru 5 name changes now retired.

Raymond Boothe posted
Cleveland-Cliffs Steelton Rail Works: Rail on the cooling bed (CC photo).

 

Raymond Boothe posted
Cleveland Cliffs-Steelton Works: View of the EAF (Cliffs Photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe collection).

Chairs Lion posted
Bethlehem steel -Steel foundry, Steelton plant I think. Worked there in th 70’s on the furnace crew for a while, hot topping the molds. bottom pour ladles weren’t bad top pour ladles would scare the crap out of me.

Mikey boy1: That picture is before the70s Worked as a steel pourer in the 70s at Bethlehem plant we wore asbestos long coat and long leather gloves also dark green goggles under the 100 ton crane.

Richard Mazanek: It sucked when you couldn’t get the stopper to shut off.

Brian Carrol posted
Steelton PA Ingot facility. 300 tons poured under vacuum.
Two ladle pour. I took care of the degassing equipment.
Installing that 450 ton bridge crane in the picture was the last project my father pushed before retiring from the Ironworkers.
Chuck Kooistra

Michael Matisko 30 years ago or so (when the process was transferred from Bethlehem to Steeton, PA) they were used for GE large turbine shafts and commercial nuclear containment vessels, along with other large forgings.

Did bottom pour ingots to 92", and top pour from 92-130" in diameter.

At the old facility in Bethlehem, when they stripped the mold and the ingot tipped, it would shake the ground so much that you literally couldn't see in the building for 5 minutes or so.

They transferred the process to Steelton because they had better furnace technology.....and then shipped the hot ingots 100 miles back to Bethlehem for forging. Some of the extremely large ingots took two rail cars to transport.

Austin Caldwell: I work there now and we still make in them.
Rudy Schwartz: Those go to Lehigh heavy forge.
Don Ruth: In Kenneth Warren's book Bethlehem Steel, Builder and Arsenal of America he writes (p.268): "ISG proposed to close the Steelton works, but the U.S. Government would not permit it to do so on grounds of national security. The reason for its intervention was that the modern and efficient melting shop there was capable of casting the large ingots required by Lehigh Forge, now independent ........ Lehigh in turn was needed to provide the forgings for a new generation of larger, faster, deeper-diving nuclear submarines."
Joe Chiodo: One time at Homestead I saw them put 2 heats together (450 tons each) to make one degasser forging.
Randal McVaney: Joe Chiodo watched double heat forging in Homestead in their big steam forge press. Amazing how it was manipulated for each hammer stroke. Operator looked like using pipe organ with many foot pedals and huge hand leavers. Was making propeller shaft for air craft carrier.

Nick Wright commented on Brian's post
Here’s the mold it came out of.

Chairs Lion posted
25 Ton Bedford Crane, w/2) 12-1/2 Ton Trolleys  Bethlehem Steel, Steelton Rod Mill, duplicate crane in the background.

A 0:59 video of a 1914 Wm. Tod steam shear in operation.

Calum Learn: 44" mill shear

Fred Scanlan: Verses a gas torch!

Cleveland-Cliffs indefinitely idled plants in Riverdale, Steelton and Conshohocken in 2025. It also idled a plant in Rouge. [ChicagoTribune, May 9, 2025]

Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh Heavy Forge/Bethlehem Steel Works and SteelStacks (NMIH) Museum

Steel Works: (Satellite and to the east)

Museum: (Satellite)

The formal name for the museum is National Museum of Industrial History.

Bethlehem Steel also had a research campus in this town.

"In 1857, the Saucona Iron Company was established there. It changed its name to the Bethlehem Iron Company in 1867.  The company prospered through the last half of the nineteenth century by producing iron rails, heavy forgings, and armor plate." [LoC] In 1908, this location built the first Grey mill in the USA to hot roll wide flange H-beams. See Differdange for more information about Grey beams. "At one time, the company was the number one supplier to the domestic construction industry." [OrangeBeanIndiana]

Dale Hein posted
Bethlehem Steel Co. Bethlehem Pa. Plant
Doug Doerr: What are the buildings in the lower left? Keep these pictures coming, I love to look at the past.
Dale Hein: Doug Doerr lower part of picture is the press forge area, it is the only operating steel business today owned by Lehigh Heavy Forge I believe.
Rudy Schwartz: Dale Hein correct forge, heatreat and machine shop
Dale Hein: Doug Doerr upper left is the Structural Shipping Yards, always billed as largest in the free world.
Robert John Davis: This picture only shows about a third of the plant.
[The building with the two fat chimney's to the right of the middle was the BOF, built in 1968.]
Michael Maitland: Coke works far back right. Slag far back left.
Chairs Lion posted
Bethlehem Steel Co.  Bethlehem Pa. Plant
Antho Bdty posted with Chairs' comment.

John Brensinger commented on Chairs' post

This is the vantage point of the picture. The blast furnaces are far behind the camera.

You are looking at the part of the Bethlehem Plant that was known as the "Saucon Valley division".

Doug Valkenburg: John Brensinger, I think it was the Saucon division and across Rt 412 to the right was the Lower Saucon division. The Bethlehem plant stretched for four-plus miles and employed over 30,000 people at its peak.

Big, loud, dirty and provided the Lehigh Valley with decent paychecks for over 100 years.

John Brensinger commented on Chairs' post
This is what still exists as Lehigh Heavy Forge.... everything else, including the BOF in the middle, is gone.

Andrew Rubrecht commented on Chars' psot

Dale commented on his post
This is the other half.
Greg Barnes: Dale Hein, this is the view most seen. How does the other photo relate to this one?
Dale Hein: Greg Barnes that is the west end of the plant what we called Lehigh plant for the Lehigh river to the left.

HistoricBridges, p9

Industrial Archives & Library posted
Steel Saturday. This fantastic map of the home plant for Bethlehem Steel just came in as part of a donation from the Garden State Central Model Railroad Club in Wall, NJ. The map is correct through 1970 (created 1943) and shows how buildings were demolished as the industry evolved and there was no longer a need for them.

Rob Frederick: Right after the steel closed down I took a an all day tour of the plant before anything was taken down. At the end of the tour everyone was given a copy of this map. I had my hanging the wall for many years until sun light faded it totally white.

Gary Weslager: One of the first projects I worked on when I joined United Engineering and Foundry in 1966 was to do a little part for the Wide Flange Beam Mill that was installed there. They were the first of the new WF mills, followed by ARMCO (Houston) and Altos Hornos (Mexico). I finally got to see it (the mill at the Saucon Division) late in the life of Bethlehem's life. We also supplied the hot strip for the Burns Harbor Works.

Kevin J. Tully: Any way to get a .tiff scan of that?

Jacinta Frierson posted two photos with the comment: "A couple undated aerial images of Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Pa."

Michael Bristol: Top photo is Bethlehem, bottom photo is not.

Jeremy Kube: Michael Bristol top is Bethlehem, bottom is Sparrows Point.

[I think Michael and Jeremy are missing that there was a lot more to Bethlehem than the remnants that we see today.]

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Bethlehem had mills in several towns, so I hate it when a post doesn't provide the name of the town. This is the only mill I can think of that was on one side of a rather wide river.

Remember Bethlehem steel posted

Chairs Lion posted three photos with the comment: "The Bethlehem Steel Corporation (1857-2003), was based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and was once the second largest steel producer in the United States (after Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based US Steel). Following its 2001 bankruptcy, the company was dissolved and the remaining assets sold to International Steel Group in 2003. In 2005, ISG merged with Mittal Steel, ending U.S. ownership of the assets of Bethlehem Steel."

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Martel Gause posted two photos with the comment: "Bethlehem steel."

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Shane Scanlon posted
Awesome picture at Bethlehem Pennsylvania: Tagged as Feb 1967, This view is looking towards the East-NE. You can see clearly the Minsi Trail Bridge, of course Bethlehem Steel area where Wind Creek is today.  From Grandpa's archival stuff...this is a 1200DPI scan of a small Kodachrome print. Grandpa was known for either chartering a plane directly, or joining another charter, so he could take these photos with his 35mm Kodak Retina model camera.

Roy Schreffler: This is my grandfather‘s image that I scanned and uploaded yesterday to the railroads of Lehigh Valley, Facebook group

Henrik Fredriksson: And the sinterplants smokestack is belching.

Neal Burtner: Loved that bridge. It not only bridged the river, but the railroad and the workings of the Beth Steel plant. The plant dwarfed the little bridge but the public could drive right through.

Roy Schreffler posted
Bethlehem Steel in PA early 1900's - From a glass magic lantern slide I own.

Ika Risma posted three photos with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel, 1995."

D Eric Davis shared

Cleve Whatley: Sad. You can look at the lack of maintenance on everything and see that it has no future. I seen this a lot at Gulf States Steel, US Steel Ensley, and US Steel Fairfield. I am happy to see the care, maintenance, new equipment, better processes installed at the NUCOR and CMC plants I was able to visit. Those companies are in it for the long haul, not like the others.

Joseph Ruiz: Cleve Whatley N I P P O N Steel seems to have a great road map for US Steel moving forward. Cleveland Cliffs needs to wake the eff up. Hopefully, Steelton and Dearborn are under better ownership soon, or, Cliffs will have them refreshed and back to work soon.

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The pipes are as tall as a locomotive. And this is another example of a slug.

Keith Nonnemacher posted
PB&NE switching one of the Furnaces Bethlehem Steel Bethlehem PA those Hot Metal Bottle Cars or Torpedoes are still there rusting away

Kevin Peterson posted two photos with the comment: "This 14,000 ton hydraulic forging press was located in the Armor Forge at Bethlehem Steel (building no. 23 on the map in the second picture). It was used in forging armor plate, large cranks, shafts, field rings, turbine rims, and more. It was scrapped in 1954."

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8 photos concerning Lehigh Heavy Forge

This photo is old enough to have four, instead of today's two, blast furnaces.

Mostarifa Mostarifa posted
The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steel and shipbuilding company that for much of the 20th century was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. The company's roots trace to 1857 with the establishment of the Bethlehem Iron Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem Steel was formed in 1904 through the merger of the earlier companies, and existed through the decline of American steel manufacturing during the 1970s until its bankruptcy in 2001 and final dissolution in 2003. @steelstacks_pa @wcbethlehem are currently operating nightlife and gaming operations at this location.

Tom McCullough Sr.: It was my largest customer in the 1980's. Then the company that made the products we sold cut us out to deal direct. When Betlehem went bankrupt, the greedy bastards got stuck with about $500K bad debt. My business survived because they fired us!

 

Jessica Van Giana posted
The old Bethlehem Steel Headquarters building. It was built in the shape of an “H” so that they could have 8 corner offices per floor. In the foreground is a pinion gear weighing 40.000 pounds.
[Some comments imply that Martin Tower now occupies the land.]

Tim Hennessey posted three photos with the comment: "Saw this on another page. 

Bethlehem Steel (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) in 1995."

Batsby Hornicek: these pics were right at the end.

I think John Newman posted that other page.

Phil Jad shared

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Marc Reed posted
Bethlehem Steel (Lehigh Plant) blast furnaces ca. 2006 or so.
Terry Hartman: This mill produced steel for buildings and bridges all over the world. Was considered one of the best mills anywhere !
Tom Molseed: Those cranes in the background were building a hotel and casino on former steel plant land.

Jonell Pointer posted
Photo from another group, push-pull train leaving Bethlehem, labeled Feb 1978. I'm not certain of this date, 'cause I rode the Phila-Bethlehem run a lot back then, I don't recall anything but RDCs, and I think everything was still labeled RDG or Conrail.

Henry A. Jewell posted
Bethlehem Steel Works in 1907.
Kathleen Chandler: And the color of the air is almost exactly correct... Maybe just a little more tinge of red.
Jack Davis shared

Nick Chismar posted four photos with the comment:

Perhaps the most unique furnace on site, Bethlehem Steel's Furnace A at the Bethlehem Plant stands in contrast to its younger contemporaries.

Built in 1910, Furnace A is the smallest of the five remaining blast furnaces with a hearth diameter of 21'6" compared to the next size up, Furnace E, at 24'. 

The Furnace was lit on April 9, 1910, by John Fritz, who himself was 87 years old. Fritz was, and rather still is a legend in the steel industry as a whole for his early adoption of the Bessemer process and design for a three-high rolling mill. He served as General Superintendent and Chief Engineer at the Bethlehem Plant when it was still known as Bethlehem Iron Works. Retiring at the young age of 70 in 1892, Fritz left before former US Steel President Charles Schwab would transform Bethlehem, but he was still involved nonetheless.

During the lighting of the furnace, Lehigh University students were invited to attend as the furnace went on blast.

Furnace A has the distinction of also being the only furnace on site that features the use of rivets as it's primary method of construction. It's four stoves with stacks are also unique to the site and seem to be a bit of a rarity amongst surviving American furnaces.

If I remember correctly, Furnace A was shut down in the late 1950s to early 1960s. It can be seen up close, as well as all the other furnaces, by walking along the former highline which is now the Hoover-Mason Trestle walkway in Bethlehem, PA.

Photos from 2019 - Kodak Tri-X 35mm film

James Musser: A furnace was rebuilt extensively in the 40s or 50s. I believe the whole top works is completely different than how it was originally built. The stoves were fairly common when built, but yes, you don’t see them around anymore. They are 3-pass stoves. There was a large electrostatic precipitator gas cleaning complex located between the cast house and the railroad tracks that was part of the rebuild, but was demoed during the casino redevelopment. These cleaners served A furnace and B furnace. MIke Rabbitt in his history of this furnace said it was in blast until 1969.

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Dale Hein posted
This is the Stuctural Shipping Yards at Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Plant. 25 crane runs mixed around 6 rolling mills. BOF at the top and abandoned Open Hearths with the line of stacks.
Steve Adams: I find it interesting how mills get laid out. I realize many of them evolve over a long period of time, and real estate a factor, but many of them appear to be planned by my kids kindergarten class. Each mill is unique, but the concept of efficient moving of materials from one shop to the next is the same. One thing I also wonder is why management spent so little on keeping the facilities looking decent. 2 guys full time could ensure everything is painted at least over a 3 year cycle and keep the trees and crap cleaned up. Every other industry seems to be able to look after their plants. I think it would help public relations wise, since today many people think mills are a dirty, polluting dinosaur of the past which isn't the case if management doesn't work want it to be.
Bob O'Neal

Efficiency in Design? In 1934 my father became one of the first in a brand new field: Industrial Engineer. Right out of Univ. of Pittsburgh, US Steel assigned him to the huge Gary Works.

He took his stopwatch and clipboard and went into one of their mills to time and measure the work flow. One long weekend he decided to have the weekend shift change the layout of the line. More efficient work flow!

The main shift workers came in on Monday took one look at all this . . . and walked off on strike!

My Dad was called to the plant manager’s office. The manager said, “Bob, you’re a bright, ambitious young man and the layout you made was brilliant.

But we’re going to get you the hell out of here before they kill you!”

He was immediately transferred to New Castle PA. 

In later years he became a chief industrial engineer and was successful, but the mills (and unions) never embraced efficiency and the resulting lack of increase in productivity caused their final demise.

Doug Majka: Forty years after that they still hadn't figured it out, but the foreign competition who came in with their clipboards and stopwatches made notes and learned from us.
Kenneth Treharn: Looks like 15 Open Hearth Furnaces! Impressive.
Bubba Dubs: Does anyone know approximately where the Grey mill was in this photo? I see the newer combo mill on the right side.
Dale Hein: Bubba Dubs to the left of the combo mill is the 40 number 1 mill, then the 48” mill, then the 42” mill. I know the 48” mill was a Grey mill.

 

Bubba Dubs posted
Blast furnace E, Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Pennsylvania.

 

Bubba Dubs posted

Tops works of E furnace followed by the rest of blast furnace row at Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Pennsylvania. 

BD drone photo

John M. Casteline commented on Bubba's post
Steel Stacks community arts and music venue with the backdrop of the old Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces. Industrial Fine Arts at its best.

Chairs Lion posted

birthplace of the H-beam

bethlehem steel works, south bethlehem, pa

Larry James Neff posted
Bethlehem Steel plant. 48 inch mill # 2 mill
John Groves: Larry James Neff, do you have any more pictures of the 42" and 48" heavy universal beam mills (the Grey mills)?

Comments on Larry's post

Larry James Neff posted
Bethlehem plant 1984

 

Tom Molseed posted
Blast Furnace, Bethlehem Steel. Beth. Plant.
Brad Perkins: Boy I hated those silver coats.
William Mullen: Keith Wilburn They were the newer jackets, the old ones were white and made with asbestos.
Don Lloyd: wore similar outfit working on electric arc furnace in carson ca. we tapped out heats @ 3,000 degrees!! damn right it's hot!! lol
William Mullen: A photo I took right before we shut down.

William Mullen commented on Tom's post
Blast Furnace Photos

William Mullen commented on Tom's post
Blast Furnace Photos

I could not find this ore bridge in any of the aerial photos. I still can't picture what this plant looked like during its heyday.

1 of 10  photos posted by John Jauchler
Here's a group of photos I took at the Bethlehem complex in Bethlehem, PA on May 29, 2006. This was during the period after the mill had closed, but before the casino had been built. Some initial prep work, mostly installation of new roads, was underway at this point, but the actual construction of the casino buildings didn't start until late the following year.

Michael Jones posted
picture i took of Bethlehem Steel back in 2011

 

Steve Trains posted
Bethlehem Steel
James Torgeson shared
A westbound Norfolk Southern train passes the blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel home plant. This was originally the Lehigh Valley mainline.
Gilbert Pinkley: Used to load out of their just about every week.

Nick Chismar posted
A "Portrait" of Furnace D, Bethlehem Steel home plant.
Ilford HP5 35mm

Юрий Лепихов posted

Bethlehem Steell,Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Stephen Wolstenholme shared
Sjaak Betjes: BF A. 

 

John Heaney posted
River view lehigh River Bethlehem Steel Bethlehem Pennsylvania.

Joey Logan posted
Seen this on twitter. Captioned. The factory that built NYC.
Bubba Dubs: Blast furnaces A, B and C. C is the only one with the downcomer going forward over the top of the skip [hoist].

A short history of the company

80% of NYC skyscrapers and some of the big bridges were built with Bethlehem steel.

 

Nick Chismar posted
Looking east in Bethlehem from the Hoover-Mason Trestle. Ahead stands the remains of the No.2 Machine Shop, formerly the world's longest machine shop. Typically, if you search "Bethlehem Steel" you will find images from the WWI and WWII eras during the production of war materiel which made the shop famous. In the distance stands the No.5 Treatment building, now part of the Lehigh Heavy Forge which still operates today. If what I remember is correct, LHF is the only HEAVY Forge remaining in the United States, utilizing their 10,000 Ton Press.
Matt Boylan: Not only is it the remaining 10,000 ton in the US but I believe it’s the remaining 10,000ton in this hemisphere. The others are over seas. There’s I believe less than 10 in the entire world if I’m not mistaken. It’s a hell of a job, we have a lot of fun in there.
Mitchell Knauss: Matt we also have the biggest distance between bolster plate and cross head.
Jason Sessoms: I don't think there was anything that plant couldn't make.

safe_image for LONG AFTER THE MILL IS SILENT: BETHLEHEM STEEL’S COMBO MILL
["This week" was posted Mar 24, 2022. It was closed in Mar 1997. The combo mill was opened in 1968. The article has several interior shots.]

 

Steve Barry posted
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
March 23, 1996
Conrail SD50 6769 leads an eastbound freight past the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem.
James Torgeson shared
Less than a year cold! This is the former Lehigh Valley Railroad mainline.

SteelStacks-about has a timeline of this site

The part of the works that contained the blast furnaces were not torn down and have been turned into a tourist attraction and a performance space [Steel Stacks].

Street View

 

Thomas James Wiley posted
Blast furnaces at Bethlehem Steel!!
Ray Belcher: Wondering how many Blast furnaces they had there.
Bubba Dubs: Ray Belcher 7 at one point (A-G) 5 in the later stages (A-E)
Donald Heil: At at one time in early 80's B,C,D, and E were still online. Not all 4 at once but usually any combination of 2 of them during the 24 hrs.. E finally went off-line first. As we all know " the rest is history ".
Allen Pugh shared
Richard Allison: In my company, in my department, we were divided between Bethlehem and Canadian ops and the other was USS and everything else. I was always USS and everything else and I miss not being in very many Bethlehem plants. The only Bethlehem plant I spent time was only Sparrow's Point and it was HUGE. When L Furnace was starting, most of it's line furnaces were still standing and in 1978 it was amazing to drive past so many standing blast furnaces, now all gone.

I presume this is Bethlehem Steel in this town as opposed to Johnstown, Lackawanna, Sparrows Point or Burns Harbor.

Mostarifa Mostarfa posted
Bethlehem steel hot metal and slag wagons
[I think these are just hot metal cars. Slag cars look more like thimbles.]
Jessica Van Giana shared

Andrew Mark Popagain: Liquid hot Iron Ladles , not slag.

I've been skipping photos of the stacks because they are rather redundant, but this is a new view.

Buffa Dubs posted
Bethlehem Pa, blast furnace row from the river side.

 

Kahal Chauhan posted
Aerial view of the blast furnaces at Artsquest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania!!

Library of Congress via 1877 via explorePAhistory
Founded in 1741 by Moravians, a sect of German religious communitarians, Bethlehem remained closed to outsiders until 1844. The opening of the Lehigh Canal in 1829 contributed to the town's economic growth, but it was only after steelmaker John Fritz improved the Bessemer process at the Bethlehem Iron Company in the 1870s that Bethlehem became one of the nation's great steel mill towns. In this lithograph from 1877, the Iron Works can be seen in the distance on the right side of the Lehigh River.

William H. Rau via Bethlehem_Steel

1964 Allentown East and 1965 Hellerton Quadrangles @ 1:24,000

John Groves posted two photos with the comment:

Photograph 1: appropriate historic shot of Bethlehem plant blast furnaces from graveyard.

Photograph 2: aerial overview of the Bethlehem plant (photo by Opacity.us)

This new topic was triggered by the recent post asking about the background to Billy Joel's famous song "Allentown" in 1982, about "shutting all the factories down". Allentown and Bethlehem PA are one community, but the famous steel mill is in Bethlehem. The mill actually survived in operation for another 14 years after the Allentown song. It was finally abandonned in 1996. Bethlehem Steel Company also had its HQ in Bethlehem. It was America's second largest steel company for most of the 20th Century. It finally went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. What is left are now parts of Cleveland-Cliffs Steel.

BETHLEHEM PLANT - FACILITIES HISTORY

Bethlehem Steel Company

Filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. Acquired in 2003 by International Steel Group for $1.3B. ISG was acquired for $4.5B by Mittal Steel in 2005, which became Arcelor-Mittal in 2006. ArcelorMittal USA acquired by Cleveland-cliffs in 2020.

Bethlehem Plant

Bethlehem, PA

Established BF 1863, Bessemer steel 1873, OH steel 1888.

1960 iron facilitues lineup:

Lehigh division,

BF A  21'6", 1,000 tpd

BF B  28'9", 1,650 tpd

BF C  27'11", 1,400 tpd

BF D  28'9", 1,650 tpd

BF E  24'0", 1,400 tpd

BF F  19'0", 800 tpd

BF G  19'9", 800 tpd

BF history:

BF No.1 built 1863, closed 1899 or 1900.

BF No.2 built 1867, rebuilt 1877, 1905, in 1910 renamed BF A, dismantled 1911, new furnace 1915, rebuilt 1941, closed late-1960s.

BF No.3 built 1868 to produce spiegeleisen, closed c.1887.

BF No.4 built 1876, in 1910 renamed BF B, rebuilt 1917, new furnace 1954, enlarged early 1970s.

BF No.5 built 1877, in 1910 renamed BF C, rebuilt 1914, 1922, closed 1929, new furnace 1943.

Old No.6 built 1875, sold and removed 1881.

New No.6 built 1883, dismantled 1906, new BF D built 1906, enlarged 1910, 1926, new furnace 1953, enlarged late-1960s.

(In 1904 BFs A to D had 10ft. hearths and were rated at 150 tpd each)

BF E built 1907, enlarged 1922, new furnace late-1950s.

BF F built 1911, rebuilt 1923, 1928, 1938, closed early-1960s.

BF G built 1911, rebuilt 1936, closed early-1960s.

1960 steel facilities lineup and history:

Lehigh Bessemer shop 4 x 7.5t, built 1873, dismantled 1902.

Lehigh No.1 OH shop 11 furnaces built 1888-?, closed 1930s.

Lehigh No.2 shop 6 OH x 140t, 0.580 Mtpa, built 1912, closed late-1960s.

Saucon No.1 shop 16 OH x 160t, 2.028 Mtpa, built 1907-1912, closed late-1960s.

Saucon Duplex shop, 2 tilting OHs x 200t & 3 Bess x 25t, built 1911, Bessemers closed 1929, OHs might have become part of new No.2 shop.

Saucon No.2 Shop 5 OH x 235t, 1.032 Mtpa, built early-1940s. Closed late-1960s.

5 EAF X 28/50t  0.230 Mtpa

EAFs 1 x 28t (1938), 4 x 50t (1940-57)

Total steel capacity 1960 was 3.900 Mtpa.

1960 mills lineup:

5 structural mills (including 1908 Grey heavy WFB mill), 6 bar mills, all very old.

Post-1960 changes:

1961 new 14"/10" bar mill added, closed 1981. All of the other six old bar mills closed 1977. Three of the old light structural mills also closed 1977 to early 1980s. The closure of these 10 bar and light structural mills was due to mini mill competition. 

By 1980s BFs reduced to just the largest 4, with max. 3 operating, all more than 30 years old. By 1990s only C & D operating.

B 30', 3,200 tpd (new 1954)

C 27'11", 2,200 tpd (new 1943)

D 30', 3,200 tpd (new 1953)

E 24' 2,000 tpd (new late-1950s)

1968 2 LD x 270t replaced OHs (2.7 Mtpa), no continuous casting.

1968 new combination medium beam mill (0.800 Mtpa)

1989 $50M upgrade to 1908 Grey WFB mill (1.0 Mtpa).

In 1985 Bethlehem gave serious study to closing the BF/LD/bloom mills and shipping semis from Sparrows Point to feed the structural mills. The union agreed to cut 550 jobs so the plan was dropped. 

For two years up to late-1991 Bethlehem and British Steel tried to negotiate a JV to  operate the Steelton rail mill and Bethlehem plant beam mills, all fed by an upgraded Steelton EAF/CC front end. The plan was abandoned when the local unions refused concessions.

In 1993 Bethlehem announced a $250M plan to replace the Bethlehem BOF/LD/bloom mills by a new EAF/beam blank CC in the LD shop building. By 1994 this plan was abandonned as uncompetitive against Nucor's new beam mills. The alternative plan adopted was to close the Grey beam mill by end-1996 and invest $50M in upgrading the 1968 medium beam mill. Cast bloom feed was to be shipped from Steelton EAF/CC plant, incurring transport and bloom reheating costs.

The BF/LD & old EAFs were closed in November 1995. At about the same time in October 1995 the Grey beam mill was closed early after 87 years operations. The combination beam mill scored a $25M upgrade in 1996 but was permanently closed in March 1997, ending Bethlehem operations at its home plant.

Five of the BFs have been preserved as a museum and much of the rest of the site turned into a casino.

Bethlehem's plant closure marked the final exit of US integrated plants from the heavy beam market. US Steel closed its historic Homestead 1927-vintage beam mills in 1985 and its 1931-vintage WFB mill at South Chicago in 1992.

Only three USA mini mills now produce heavy wide flange beams up to 36" sizes: Nucor-Yamato at Blytheville  AR, built 1989 and expanded 1993 to 2.7 Mtpa capacity, Chapparal Steel at Petersburg VA, built 1999 1.0 Mtpa (acquired by Gerdau Steel for $4B in 2007), and Steel Dynamics Inc at Columbus City IN, built 2002 and expanded 2010/15 to 2.2 Mtpa.

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James Torgeson shared a link, 1965
The Bethlehem Plant ore yard, 30 years before ore would no longer be needed. As the plant was landlocked, all ore came in by rail.
Citation: Bethlehem Steel Corporation, “Iron Ore Storage, Ore Yard, Bethlehem Plant,” Bethlehem Steel Corporation Photo Collection, accessed October 2, 2022, https://nmihbethlehemsteel.omeka.net/items/show/55.

 

nmih (172 photos)
Citation: Bethlehem Steel Corporation, “Aerial View Ore Yard, Bethlehem Plant,” Bethlehem Steel Corporation Photo Collection, accessed October 2, 2022, https://nmihbethlehemsteel.omeka.net/items/show/59.

 

nmih (172 photos)
Citation: Bethlehem Steel Corporation, “Blast Furnace Cast Floor,” Bethlehem Steel Corporation Photo Collection, accessed October 2, 2022, https://nmihbethlehemsteel.omeka.net/items/show/10.

 

1 of 3 photos posted by Michael Maitland
Question for the group. Here are three archival photos from Bethlehem Steel. Once these massive turrets are fashioned, how are they shipped? Beth was landlocked, so guessing that the turret plates were disassembled and then got their final welds in Brooklyn, Quincy, Philly......Navy yards. Dont see many photos of these being shipped. Clearence had to be an issue on many routes. These also had to be extremely heavy.
John Sheridan: Actually, for the BB55 (North Carolina class) & above class battleships all the armor was shipped as plate then cut & assembled at the yards. For the earlier battleships (like in the photos, they were assembled at the steel mill, taken apart, then shipped as parts. There is no way they could ship an entire turret as the thing weighed a couple hundred tons.
Michael Maitland: Read that once the Navy found out about the Yamato and Musashi 18 inch guns, they needed to match the firepower in the proposed Montana class of battleships. There was a long specially designed building at Mesta Machine in Homestead where the forging would be done. The building might still be standing and owned by Whemco now. 

MilitaryHistoria posted
14“ naval guns and naval gun turret construction. Bethlehem Steel Company, Bethlehem PA. 1918.

WWII Legends of Steel posted
A workshop at the American Bethlehem Steel plant. In the foreground are the 14-inch gun turrets of the New York-class battleships, and behind them are the same 234/50-mm coastal mounts that armed three MkIPV batteries.
Andrew Radomski shared
Chairs Lion posted with the same comment.
Sa Gor plagiarized

Bethlehem_Steel

Bethlehem Steel was the first American steel mill to incorporate the revolutionary Bessemer process in its manufacturing methods. The process—discovered by Henry Bessemer in 1856—removes impurities from iron ore by blowing oxygen into molten pig iron. Coke and limestone are added to the mixture and help catalyze the oxidation process. The end result yields a product sixteen-times more durable than iron and substantially cheaper to manufacture. During Bethlehem’s first full year of operation utilizing the Bessemer process in 1875, the company manufactures roughly five percent of the nation’s steel rails. By 1879, it was producing over eleven percent.

In 1907, Bethlehem Steel became the first manufactory to adopt Henry Grey’s innovative mill rolling process, which produced wide-flange ‘H’ beams (later patented as Bethlehem Beams) that were lighter, cheaper, and more structurally-sound than traditional ‘I’ beams. The corporation also replaced their Bessemer converters with open-hearth furnaces. These furnaces generated extremely high temperatures and allowed molten mixtures to be quality-tested repeatedly over a 24-hour period, which improved overall uniformity and integrity of the finished steel. Both of these advancements allowed skyscrapers to reach new heights and bridges to traverse greater distances.

[DiscoverAmerica]

Thomas James Wiley posted
#2 Machine shop Bethlehem Pa.!
Jeff Mikula: We had one at Sparrows Point also. Huge.

Don Cassata posted
1899 pic of the Machine Shop at the Bethlehem Plant. The only Machine Shop at that time, Bethlehem Plant grew to 8 Machine Shops.
[Back when they were still using line shafts.]

Brett Wanamaker posted
A favorite spot of mine. Bethlehem Blower House
James Torgeson: The Bethlehem turbo blowers are gone. [But the above still exists.]
Stacy Mays: The blowers at both Duquesne and ET were steamers.
Randal McVaney: Stacy Mays CO gas engine. blowers were first generation blowers, steam followed some 40 to 50 years later with over 10,000 hp . AC motors not big enough for BF wind required. Worked at both ET and Duquesne power houses.
William Mullen: They had a big explosion there and it blew the windows out of the building. They were adding oxygen into the wind from the engines and they think the grease caused the explosion. Labor’s we’re working cleaning a walkway that was above the lines that exploded. They just left the area to take a break. When they came back the walkway was gone. The engine house shanty where the man who operated the engines left to take an early shower and his shanty was damaged. Thank God no one was hurt in that explosion.

Claura Samantha posted six photos with the comment:

Fourteen years ago, a group of us was invited to take on a special project — restoring one of the gas blowing engines at Bethlehem.

We chose Engine 11, as it was still intact, positioned next to a large open space, and conveniently near a doorway — perfect for both access and potential public visitation. The plan was to start with a cosmetic restoration, then work with the casino to open the building to visitors.

After a summer of dedicated work, we had made great progress — and then, access was suddenly shut down by the casino due to roof safety concerns. Sadly, the engine has remained untouched ever since.

Fun fact: the green paint you see here is an exact match to the original blowing engine green. The former superintendent had taken a quart home about 30 years earlier, where it sat in his garage until we got it, matched the color, and used it in our restoration. Years of mill dust had turned the engines a dark green, but originally, the building was bright and full of life.

Maybe someday, someone in Bethlehem will pick up where we left off — repair the roof, and finish the restoration we began. Here’s hoping! 🙏

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Keith R Phelps commented on Claura's post
Reposting an admins post? Wow Claura Samantha you’re not bright.

Douglas Strain: Keith R Phelps Scammer from Indonesia…

Trevor Shellhammer posted two photos with the comment:

Here are 2 oldies but goodies that I know for sure are from the Beth Steel Bethlehem Plant foundries (they had 5 foundries in the plant).  Top is the Iron Foundry, shot in the large casting area, or Big Shop, with the heaviest crane.  (2) 84" dia. cupolas in the background.  As published in "The Bethlehem Booster" magazine, Vol 1 January 2, 1919 No. 17.  They had 3 other molding areas, the Lower Run, Middle Run and Dog House.  

The second pic is the Brass Foundry circa 1920, which was adjacent to the Iron Foundry.  Shown are some copper blast furnace tuyeres, and pouring a bronze cylinder casting, most likely a large liner/bushing, possibly for a ship shaft. From 1926 on, these were all cast centrifugally.  Not sure if this one was?  

Glad to see they are almost all wearing hats! And you should be able to pick out the boss in each shot.

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Bethlehem had several locations. I'm just guessing that this mill was here. If you know the location, please leave a comment.

Frank Jacobs III posted

Trevor Shellhammer posted seven photos with the comment: "Found a series of photos of the making of a steel casting, by Bethlehem Steel - Bethlehem Plant's Steel Foundry.  In this case, from patternmaking to heat treat, a casting for a press.  Unfortunately no weight listed, and no pouring pictures...the back of the pictures states: "14,000-ton press casting".  You can figure out where it went...may argue about the press's rating, though!"

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Patternmaking, in the Pattern Shop, 2nd floor of the Lehigh Carpenter Shop.
There was a freight elevator to take patterns, people and materials to the 2nd floor. But patterns of this size, which were not uncommon BTW, came and went via a monorail hoist that exited the building through sliding doors, to be lowered to the ground for trucking to the specific foundry...Iron, Steel, Ingot Mould, or Roll. Brass Foundry patterns used the elevator, some could be put in your pocket!
The building is still standing, it's the twin of the one across the street. That's the former Electrical Repair Shop, now the Smithsonian's National Museum of Industrial History. They're in the process of restoring their 2nd floor to basically double Museum space!

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Pattern nearing completion. No shots of what must have been many core boxes.

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Mold being finished in the pit, at the Steel Foundry.

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Finishing and Core Setting.
Bob Daykin: How do you shake the sand out of something that weighs a zillion pounds?
Trevor Shellhammer: Bob Daykin good question Bob. In those days...hard labor. Let it cool off, start digging and jack hammering away. If there's enough room, an electric clamshell bucket. Once you have the cast-on lifting lugs exposed, you can get a special lifting rig on it. Then, lots of muscle and sweat to chip and grind the sand and lumps off. Air arc off the gates and risers.
Bob Daykin: Trevor Shellhammer Wow. So new question-once the sand is poured, how do they get the pattern out of the mold box? Unbelievable.
Trevor Shellhammer: Bob Daykin mulled said is rammed around the pattern in the pit, in this case (no flask used), in layers, until the top is reached. I guess there is a flask for the cope (top) to hold the risers and metal runner/gate. I don't recall if the Steel Foundry had a mechanized sand slinger, or if this was entirely rammed by hand. The pattern was made in sections, with some loose pieces so it could be pulled out of the rammed mold. Possible because it was made with draft, or taper. The pattern makers not only knew reading blueprints, but draft and the shrink rules used for each type of metal (patterns made larger than drawing dim's to account for metal shrinkage during solidification and cooling).

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Casting being removed from the pit.

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Cleaning the casting, or what I like to say, "fettling"

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Going into the heat treat furnace.

Chad Bercosky shared an album that has ten photos.

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dumping slag pots at the slag plant pouring pits

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Wave generator closeup

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Crank disc for wave generator for Lukens Steel Company for Beach Erosion Board, Washington DC, shipped from No. 2 Machine Shop by PA trucking company A. Duie Pyle. August 30 1955, 27,320 lbs.

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BOF 7/9/69    92" forging ingot being poured at Basic Oxygen Furnace, Bethlehem plant.
Micah-John Kershner: How far-sighed to replace the Open Hearths with the BOF, and how short-sighted to not go to a Continuous Caster at the same time..
Bethlehem Steel Photographic History: The continuous caster was developed in Austria in the 1950s. Bethlehem Steel installed continuous casters at its Sparrows Point and Burns Harbor plants. They built an experimental one in the Bethlehem plant in the early 1960s west of the blast furnaces, in the former Lehigh open hearths. It was never a production caster and was abandoned a few years later.

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Quenching coke at the coke works

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Steelworkers' memorial to the U.S. armed forces.

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Dedication of the armed forces memorial erected by steelworkers near the main entrance to the plant, May 26, 1989.

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Magnet assembly (Atomic Energy Commission) for Midwestern Universities Research Assn., Madison, Wis.
Shipped from No. 2 Machine Shop to Allis Chalmers. West Allis Wis.
April 21 1959. 17,890 lbs

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rotor wheel for Newport News March 3 1952. Turning onto Wyandotte Street

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rotor wheel for Newport News being moved out of Bethlehem
shipped from No. 2 machine shop March 3 1952

Speaking of #2 machine shop in the tenth photo above:

John Fischer posted six photos with the comment: "No. 2 Machine Shop Bethlehem Steel in 1996 photos by Joseph Elliot."

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Andrew Cesanek

This lathe got moved to #8 shop once #2 started to wind down in the late 80s. It's still used, infrequently, to this day

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From Trevor's comment on the first photo, I surmise that the building on the right was the pattern shop and the building on the left was the electrical repair shop. The building on the left is now the National Museum of Industrial History.

Street View

 

National Museum of Industrial History posted
A gem from the archives: View of the main gate to the Bethlehem Plant circa 1942 taken from the Steel General Offices (General Offices- East Building). The center of the image shows the Electrical Repair Shop which is now the museum building. In the right forefront is the roof of the Safety & Welfare Building. The top right of the image shows the Carpenter & Pattern Shop and in the top left of the photo you can see the construction of the Bethlehem Plant Office (Plant Office-West Building). Donated by Alex & Betty DeLeon.

safe_image for Inside Bethlehem’s National Museum of Industrial History
"“The building itself is an artifact,” Zaia said, describing the museum’s home on the SteelStacks campus, which was once the Bethlehem Steel plant’s electrical repair shop, built in 1913."

Steve Vinosky posted a photo with the comment:

Bethlehem Steel 9" no 2 mill overhead view while looping.  

Pusher Furnace heated a standard 2 1/2" square billet that discharged to the roughing train.

Roughing train stands were

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4 to 5 was handled by a mill hand strander that would catch the tail end of the bar after it drops out of 4 stand.  and then place it in to 5 stand.

Looping was done in: 

5 to 6 stand

6 to 7 stand 

7 to 8 stand

8 to 9 finishing stand

Runout table

Hot bed transfer

shear roller table

shears

then pulled into cradles

unload cradles and send to the shipping department

Richard Kozak: A number got hurt.

Steve Vinosky: Richard Kozak yep, one guy on c turn has the bar pick the upper guide and sliced across his chest. He was burned and was back to work shortly after the accident. He was lucky. I have been burned several times, mostly on the 12 inch.

A closer look of the above stand looks like looping was being done in 7,8, and 9 stand. When the rolled bands 6, 7, 8, and stands were looped. Nothing was harder than looping 5" wide band.

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Bubba Dubs posted two photos with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel PA, Gas blowing engines that provided the blast to the furnaces. Ran on either blast furnace, coke oven, or natural gas. These are a few shots I didn't lose in my hard drive crash!!"

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I think Bethlehem made their big guns for the Navy at this site.

DeBruler

Sean Brady posted

Worker cutting a gun casting with a giant circular saw at Bethlehem Steel in Pennsylvania - 1941

Photo from https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100021421346688

Chuck Ross: Biggest saw I ever worked with was a 79 inch circular cutoff saw at the first sawmill I worked at when I was 18. Like this one, it had inserted teeth. One day the electric motor burned out and the boss, a notorious cheapskate selected one off the scrap heap to replace it. Nobody gave a thought to direction of rotation, always an issue with AC motors. They installed it, flipped the switch and it spun right up to speed BACKWARDS. Well the coarse threads on the arbor nut are designed for correct direction of rotation so the nut and washer fell off into the conveyor and here is a giant saw, wobbling on a very short arbor shaft. Some hero switched the thing off after a moment but I ran so fast, 90 degrees to the plane of the saw that I wasn't even a witness to that.

[I would not be looking that close to the plant of cutting steel without at least goggles.]

Lehigh Valley RR: Steam, Diesel, Passenger & Freight posted three images with the comment: "Lehigh Valley RR 12-Wheel, 100,000-lb capacity, Flat Cars, (L-R) 1999, 1998 & 1997 (4 car series also included Road No. 2000), pictured at Bethlehem Steel, with artillery guns for the US Army during the outbreak of the Spanish - American War in 1898. Included is the car diagram from 1892."

John Ruth: The specialized building for heat-shrinking the layers of a "built up" artillery piece still exists at Bethlehem PA.

It has a deep pit under an overhead crane.

( I've not been inside. )

Vincent Tabone: The L V didn't have many flat cars being a coal movig R R.

Arthur C Ivins Jr: The PRR built a class of heavy duty flats called gun cars to serve the Navy Foundry in Washington DC where they made big guns for Navy ships.

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Cenny Albera posted
Bethlehem Steel…Number 8 Machine Shop …Anthony Strelecki (Machine Operator) is working on a 16 inch battleship cannon.

John Brensinger commented on Cenny's post

That's WAY too small to be a 16" naval rifle barrel. They are close to 4 feet in diameter.

This a 14" barrel that's in Bethlehem, PA at what remains of the old treatment building.

[I wonder if the photo is machining a propeller shaft for a battleship.]

John Brensinger commented on his comment

Rich Rowlands posted three photos with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel."

Mark Jevons: Building in background is still in use today. #1 machine shop of Lehigh Heavy Forge (formally BS #8 machine shop). PBNE RR still transports parts on those tracks for Lehigh HeavyForge.

David Warner posted a copy of these three photos.

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Boyle Mdumon posted
Big guns manufactured at the Bethlehem Steel Company.

Bethlehem Review, Autumn, 1956, p13 via Dennis DeBruler
"Three flat cars were needed to move this king-sized press forging -- and 17 others just like it -- from the Bethlehem plant. Forgings ere for corner support columns of a 50,000-ton Air Force forming press. In the as-forged condition, the pieces were 110' long, weighed 145 tons."

Rick Rowlands posted ten photos with the comment: "Forging a ring at Bethlehem Steel."

Mark Jevons: Press forge in Bethlehem still up and running. Part of Lehigh Heavy Forge. Only parts of original Bethlehem Steel plant still running are the press forge, No. 8 machine shop(renamed #1 shop), and the specialty roll shop.

Mitchell Knauss: We still essentially do it the same and would surprise me if the tooling pictured is the stuff we are currently using.

Tristan Mann: Mitchell Knauss that is. without a shadow of a doubt. the same tooling we STILL USE. amazing that it's still there. truly stood the test of time. i mean, look at how young Pauly looks in that pic and he's still there! 😆

Mitchell Knauss: Tristan and Franny is the operator.

Jeffrey Mauk: Look how they’re dressed, trousers, tie, shirts tucked in, the machinist with a dress shirt.

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Sean Brady posted
#8 MACHINE SHOP GENERATOR SHAFT 289,350 LBS, DAMAGED ROLL, BETHLEHEM STEEL PLANT - 1969

Aaron Collins: Looks like a work roll that spalled. I would say they are ultra sounding it.

Kevin Peterson posted
Lehigh Heavy Forge has been sourcing their vacuum poured ingots from Steelton since the Bethlehem BOF shop / EAF shop was shut down in the nineties.  Lehigh Heavy Forge does critical navy work.   Where is Lehigh Heavy Forge going to be able to source domestic vacuum cast ingots from when Steelton shuts down?

Mitchell Knauss: I've worked with that press and recently helped take it down for the new one recently installed.

Chairs Lion posted
Manual Workers Working In A Steel Mill Bethlehem Steel Corporation Pri

Calum Learn: This is Wyman Gordon's closed die forging press. Not sure if this is the 35k or 50k.

Brian Olson: Calum Learn 50K The laminated tie rods were made from forgings and were made in Bethlehem.

Jim Azelton posted four photos with the comment: "Some photos I found on various warship pages."

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Ross Muken posted
Forging and 130" diameter ingot! Gross weight was 250 tons! LHF forges the largest ingots in the United States!

Francesco Petrosino: The LHF forge (and also the NAF forge) was made by Danieli BREDA and the design was directed by my dear colleague Mr. Bonora!

Now he still work with me at Breda Service department:

https://www.danieli-usa.com/en/references.htm

Kevin Peterson posted
Here's a Whitworth steam bending press somewhere in the dead steel mills in Bethlehem, PA.

Thomas Biernacki: I think it ended up at the museum.

Rick Rowlands posted five photos with the comment: "Oversized railcar loads from the Bethlehem plant."

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John Groves posted three images with the comment:

Photo 1: Bethlehem plant's 1968-vintage Combination Medium Beam Mill, closed in 1997. I am seeking any pictures of the 1908-vintage 48-inch Grey Heavy Beam Mill, upgraded with a new $50 million 59-inch roughing stand in 1989, then closed in 1995.

Photos 2 & 3: two excellent books on Charlie Schwab who built Bethlehem Steel into the world's second largest steel company.

I posted this recently in the Facebook group "Remembering Bethlehem Steel". But I hope it might trigger even wider interest here......

I have fond memories of visiting Bethlehem a number of times from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. But the most vivid of those memories was of the time I inspected the famous 1908-vintage Grey wide flange beam mill. What an amazing piece of history!

Bethlehem's President Charlie Schwab took great personal risk building the mill, but the new mill quickly gave Bethlehem leadership in the structural beam business and ushered in the era of high rise skyscrapers in New York and Chicago.

Does anyone have any photographs of the Grey Mill? Or any detailed history of the mill, or the $50 million upgrade in 1989?

One of the comments came from group member Ian Nevin, who posted "Charles Schwab was my great uncle. I did not know him."

I added this detailed response which might be of interest to all who follow the origins and history of Bethlehem Steel.

John Nevin, that is an amazing family connection.

I rank Charlie Schwab as one of the two titans in the creation of the modern American steel industry in the five decades from 1875.

The other guy was Schwab's mentor, Andrew Carnegie.

Carnegie created the concept of the large-scale integrated steel mill and built up the world's largest steel company around Pittsburgh in the 1875 to 1900 period.

Schwab, aged 18, joined Carnegie Steel in 1879 at the famous Edgar Thomson mill under the legendary Captain Bill Jones. By 1886 and not yet 25, Schwab was General Superindentent of the fast-growing Homestead Works. It was his task to turn Homestead into the world's largest open hearth steel mill.

After Capt. Jones untimely death in 1889 in a blast furnace accident, 28 y.o. Schwab was appointed General Supt. of Carnegie's flagship Edgar Thomson mill. After the infamous Homestead strike in 1892, Schwab was moved back to restore industrial peace and renewed growth at Homestead, as well as remaining in overall control of Edgar Thomson. By 1897, aged just 35, he was President of Carnegie Steel.

In 1900/1901 Schwab played the key role in bringing together Carnegie and  J.P. Morgan to set up the world's first billion dollar corporation, U.S. Steel. Morgan agreed to pay $492 million for Carnegie Steel (equivalent to almost $16 billion in 2021 dollars).

Schwab, just turned 39, was named USS's first president. His salary in 1901 was $100,000, plus a $2 million bonus (equivalent to $3.25M salary and $65M bonus in 2021 dollars). After fundamental disagreements with USS chairman, Judge Elbert Gary, Schwab resigned in 1903.

Schwab then put his energies into acquiring Bethlehem Steel and over the next three decades building it into the world's second biggest steel company as U.S. Steel's key competitor.

Bethlehem Steel Corp  had a steelmaking capacity of less than 200,000 tpa in 1904.

By 1930 Schwab had expanded Bethlehem plant to 1.68 Mtpa. Schwab had also acquired though mergers major integrated plants at Steelton, Sparrows Point, Lackawanna, and Johnstown (Cambria). Bethlehem Steel's total steelmaking capacity had grown to 8.23 Mtpa by 1930. 

Charles Schwab has the unique record of serving as president of three of the world's most famous steel companies, Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel.

Nevertheless, Schwab's greatest achievement was his decision in 1905 to transform Bethlehem Steel from a military forgings and armor plate supplier into primarily a supplier of heavy H-beams and structurals. 

The construction of the first Grey universal beam mill in USA was a high risk venture for Bethlehem and for Schwab personally, as he was Bethlehem's majority shareholder. The Grey Mill also needed heavy investment in two 600 tpd blast furnaces, 10 x 50t open hearth furnaces and a 46-inch bloom mill to feed the new 48-inch Grey beam mill. A separate 40-inch bloom mill fed a 28-inch 3-stand structural mill and a 28-inch 3-stand rail mill. The total cost of the project was $4.5 million. The open hearth shop and mills were to be built on the new 250 acre Saucon site, adjacent to the existing 170 acre Lehigh plant.

The 40-inch bloom mill, the 28-inch rail mill and 28-inch structural mill were all supplied by Mesta Machine Co. Of West Homestead.

But the Grey mills, including the 46-inch bloom mill and the two x 48-inch universal stands were all built by Bethlehem Steel in its own shops, with the exception of the three steam engines, which were supplied by the William Todd Co. of Youngstown. No doubt the manufacture of the Grey mill in Bethlehem's shops was under the close design and personal supervision of Henry Grey. As well as paying royalty rights for use of Grey's patent, Schwab had to come up with $85,000, the sum Henry Grey and his son Charles were asking for overseeing the plant's construction. That is equivalent to almost $2.5 million in 2021 dollars.

But almost as soon as the project was authorised, the 1907 financial crisis hit and funding looked impossible. Schwab decided to take a huge risk on innovative financing, including convincing equipment suppliers to delay payment until the mill was operating. 

By January 1908 the mill was commissioned smoothly despite three-fold cost overruns (which took the total project cost to $12 million), but Schwab still needed another $1.5M in working capital. His retired friend Andrew Carnegie inspected the Grey Mill and was impressed with the new technology. He loaned Schwab some of his U.S. Steel bonds as collateral to finance bank loans.

Despite some initial reluctance from architects and builders, Bethlehem soon became dominant in the structural business and the new H-beam mill operated at full capacity for at least the next decade. The success of the famous "Bethlehem beams" ushered in the era of high-rise skyscrapers in New York and other cities. This set the strong base for Bethlehem Steel's rapid growth into the world's second largest steel company.

During his time as U.S. Steel president, Schwab had tried to convince Judge Gary to adopt the Grey H-beam technology. But Gary rejected this, given USS's already dominant position in the structurals market. Schwab offered the Grey Mill licence again in 1905 with the same result. Finally in the mid-1920s Judge Gary authorised the construction of high capacity universal H-beam mills at both Homestead and South Chicago plants. Bethlehem Steel immediately challenged this as infringing the Grey Mill patents. USS was forced to pay ongoing license fees for the technology.

[This post has lots of informative comments. One insight is that a cause of Bethlehem's bankruptcy was an unfunded pension plan.]

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Raymond Boothe posted
Painting of Lehigh Valley locomotive No. 637 passing the Bethlehem Plant of Bethlehem Steel Corporation (P. Lerro painting-1957).

Raymond Boothe posted
Bethlehem Steel-Bethlehem Plant: View of an EAF furnace inside of the alloy shop (HAER photo).
Calum Learn: Electric Furnace Melting Department (EFMD). Notice the BW spray painted on the slag door? That stood for "BethWorks" which was the original plan for the steel museum on the property.

Raymond Boothe posted
Bethlehem Steel Company-Bethlehem Plant: View of the gearbox of the rotating top of the "E" blast furnace (Dr. Raymond Boothe photograph).

 

Raymond Boothe posted
Bethlehem Steel Company-Bethlehem Plant: EAF Scrap Yard (Dr. Raymond Boothe collection).
[An Electric Arc Furnace means that Bethlehem did do some modernization of this plant.]
Kevin Peterson posted
#Bethlehem #Steel #Corporation-#Bethlehem Plant-Bethlehem PA: This is a Bethlehem Steel promotional photograph showing the huge amount of scrap steel taken in to operate the EAF Shop. The huge pipes running over to the left of the photo are part of the shop's rather large and complex environmental facilities. The EAF shop was so large it was like a city unto itself and operated almost independently (Beth Photo-Dr. Raymond Boothe Collection).

Mark Williams: The bag house was next to the steel foundry in Bethlehem . Those railroad cars car were scrap cars used in the plant only. We called them BI's. That location is in Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem.

Brian E Snyder: It’s the Electric Furnace melting department. It was my home shop for 30 years E.F.M.

Stephen Mcnally: rusty scrap makes the best steel the rust releases oxygen in the heat

 

Raymond Boothe posted
Philadelphia, Bethlehem and New England (PB&NE) locomotive No. 20 seen on the grounds of the Bethlehem Steel Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (Dr. Raymond Boothe photograph).

Before it was a parking lot: 

Abandoned America posted
The Hoover Mason Trestle at the formerly abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA
Gallery: https://www.abandonedamerica.us/bethlehem-steel
James Torgeson shared
Robert Butvilla: Why was it called that ?
James Torgeson: Robert Butvilla Named for the engineering firm that designed it.

James Torgeson shared nine photos posted by Cornelius Johnson with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel's 'Home' Plant, which made its last steel in November 1995."

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Steven J. Brown posted
Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces abandoned and preserved, form the backdrop of the Steelstacks entertainment venue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - July 21, 2022. iPhone photo.

 

Derek Palmer commented on Steven's post
March 2021

Steven J. Brown posted
Bethlehem Steel hot metal car 64 abandoned below the blast furnaces that are preserved and form the backdrop of the Steelstacks entertainment venue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - July 22, 2022. Taken with my iPhone because the lens was small enough to shoot through a chainlink fence.

Steven J. Brown posted
Bethlehem Steel molten metal ladle transfer cars abandoned below the blast furnaces that are preserved and form the backdrop of the Steelstacks entertainment venue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - July 22, 2022. Taken with my iPhone because the lens was small enough to shoot through a chainlink fence.

This link shows a couple of Larry Cars in this plant.

Charlie Murphy posted 24 images from scanning a color brochure.

James Torgeson: September 1974 publication date.

Dave Kyle: Had a tour of that facility in the 1970's. Was most impressed by the lathes used to turn the huge generator shafts.

Dave Hoffman: Thanks for sharing. Martin Tower, the landmark former headquarters of Bethlehem Steel, was imploded Sunday morning, May 19, 2019.

Stephen Mcnally: i started in the # 1 fab shop 9/1973 after a few days guy said come on kid we are going over to the B O F they are giving out cake and coffee because they just paid it off . in 1969 the B O F and the combination mill were the biggest private investment in the U S

Matthew Mrzlock: Can anyone name the 11 plants that made up Bethlehem during this time period?

James Torgeson commented on Matthew's comment
Here's a list from January 1970.

1 of 4 photos posted by Matt Burks
Mark Nalepa: Where at ? Baltimore ?

Dennis DeBruler commented on Mark's comment
Bethlehem PA, https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

 

Nick Chismar posted
Looking out to the blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel home plant from the top floor of the former plant office. The building in the foreground with the flag is home to the National Museum of Industrial History. The former plant office is now the Fowler Center, part of Northampton Community College.

 

Nick Chismar posted
Levitt Pavillion beneath Blast Furnace "B" at the former Bethlehem Steel, Bethlehem Plant.
Keenan Quinn Shaffer: Are those furnaces maintained as tourist attractions or something? How long have they been down? Kinda' look like they're maintained.
Nick Chismar: Keenan Quinn Shaffer Some areas are maintained and have been repaired. They serve as a tourist attraction and backdrop for a cultural and arts center. I would argue that more work should be done to them, but for now they remain much like they were when Furnce C shut down in 1995 ending steelmaking in Bethlehem.

 

Nick Chismar posted
Looking out to Furnace A, B and C at in Bethlehem, PA. The arched buildings are the remains of the iron foundry, one of the oldest buildings on site. The arches did not only look good but being constructed before electricity they also were the main light source for those buildings. To the right is the corner of Building No.92, the Carpenter and Pattern Shop.
Terry Kelley: At USS Gary works almost all of the were like this. Thanks for sharing

Nick Chismar posted

A sense of scale. 

Here in Bethlehem, PA, you are able to walk along for former High line known as the Hoover-Mason Trestle. Currently, the walk takes you from the old stock house at the base of Furnace "A" all the way to the end of the cast house for Furnace "E" where you can walk down to the parking lot below. You can also get off halfway to view inside the former blowing engine house for the Furnaces.

The sense of scale shows just how enormous Blast Furnaces can be, but also how massive the operation was here in Bethlehem. 

This photo is from 2019, looking West along all five Furnaces. The walls of the blowing engine house are to my left.

Jon Wolfe posted
”A” Furnace at Bethlehem Steel

James Musser posted
Bethlehem Steel Highline - Boxing Day 2022. Except for the casino/outlet mall in the background, as left…
James Musser: I took the photo from the eastern end of the Hoover Mason Highline walking path. The trail ends at steps to a parking lot there.

James Musser posted
Another Beth Steel Boxing Day 2022 photo. Like the tubular elevator. Between A and B Furnace C, D, and E in background Dust catcher on left is for A Furnace.
Donough Shanahan: Do you know what gas cleaning they did. The gas washing tech was being introduced in some works in the mid 1900, 1905-08 across the USA and Europe, dry catchers had pre dated these. For USA this was important as it coincided with bfg driven blowers.
James Musser: Donough Shanahan the gas cleaning was upgraded during the 1950 rebuilds-washers and dual electrostatic precipitators A and B furnace shared some of this equipment but had individual dust catchers

James Musser posted
Beth Steel A Furnace. 3 pass stoves in L shaped arrangement. This furnace went cold in 1969, but still standing… originally built in 1920s, the furnace got a new top in the early 50’s and one stove was eliminated (5 to 4 stoves). Stoves are mostly as the looked in 1920s.

James Musser posted
Final Bethlehem post - Blowing engine house. I was fortunate to have had a tour of this plant and the inside of this building while the engines were operating. These engines are massive and it was a fairly sublime experience with the noise and all the moving parts….
Edward Fritz: In Steelton Pa old Beth Steel plant they are still using motors from the 1800s.
Rob Van Wagnen: Wonder Why does the one in about the middle of the picture look so much nicer than all the other ones ?
Andrew Dowd: Rob Van Wagnen i believe i read on another thread, that there was a group of volunteers granted access to “preserve” one of these compressors for sometime. The compressor in the center was in the best condition and had the least amount of water damage from the leaking roof. Then at some point they deemed the entire building un-safe years back and it now sits abandoned? I’m sure someone else will chime in.

Rick Rowlands commented on Andrew's comment
In 2008 working in conjunction with the NMIH and the casino, a group of us started working on engine 11 as a demonstration project to not only restore one engine to it's original appearance but to show the casino the importance of preserving the blowing engine house. We had expected that the casino would allow visitors to the interior of the building, but instead the safety officer abruptly condemned the building and prevented any further work. Some of the parts that we painted are still sitting there on sheets of plastic where they were when painted. The green matches a can of Beth engine green that a previous blowing engine superintendent gave us. I had a local paint manufacturer here in Youngstown match it for us.
At the time the deterioration to the roof was limited to a few spots, but over the past fifteen years the deterioration has spread. I feel that the same partnership that provided for the H&M trestle walkway could be used to repair the roof of the blowing engine house, but nobody in Bethlehem is leading an effort to advocate for the preservation of the structure.

Rick Rowlands commented on Andrew's comment

Remembering Bethlehem steel posted

Bubba Dubs posted seven photos with the comment:

Work started on Bethlehem Steel’s multi function, Bessemer, three high rolling and merchant mill in 1868 and by 1873 the facility was complete. In the shape of a double cruciform, it had 4 large bays in two transepts. Its facilities were composed of 4 Bessemer converters, the three high rail mill designed by John Fritz as well as the machinery to make merchant bar stock. 

In the later days of the plant, it was used to make ingot molds. Today it still stands as a throw back to how Bethlehem started making steel in the city of Bethlehem

Dennis DeBruler: Found it: https://maps.app.goo.gl/xm15EFjhjgCXMauQ7

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John Winfield posted five photos with the comment: "Bethlehem Steel Corporation, South Bethlehem Works, 1968."

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John Winfield posted eight photos with the comment:Bethlehem Steel Corporation, South Bethlehem Works, 1968."

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Perspective view, looking southwest

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East elevation

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Scrap prep yard, adjacent to the Basic Oxygen Furnace

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Scrap prep yard adjacent to the Basic Oxygen Furnace, unloading scrap from the rolling mills

Gary Gehringer: That's what the BOF made SCRAP Steel.E.Fce. Made better steel.

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Teeming ingots

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Moving a ladle beneath a Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) vessel to receive liquid steel

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Charging a vessel with molten iron

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Preheating a charging ladle

Kevin Bruyne posted 16 photos with the comment: "On Friday NMIH began a monumental move of a 900,000 lb artifact to its new home at the museum. Installed in 1891 when Bethlehem Steel was still Bethlehem Iron Company, this hydraulic armor bending press utilized 7,000 tons of force to create armor for battleships in the Spanish-American War, WWI, and WWII. Working closely with Wind Creek Bethlehem and A&A Machinery Moving, Inc., all components of the press have been relocated to NMIH and will now be reassembled in the museum's new outdoor park."

[Comments indicate this happened in 2020.]

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Jasml N Jasmln posted
From the personal papers & archives of Henry W. Nieman, who worked for Bethlehem Steel R&D Department, Bethlehem, PA from about 1922 -1950's. This is the first time these images have seen the light of day since 1964. I scanned this image from the archive in my possession. I am guessing this is ca1930's cold-rolled sheet steel mill in or near the R&D shop in Bethlehem, PA. Henry has patents in that era related to rolling mills. Open to corrections.

24:43 video @ 0:28
The Rise and Fall of a Steel Giant
"The mill ran for almost five miles along 1,800 acres."

Rick Rowlands posted 16 photos of the restoration of #11 blowing engine.

Rick Rowlands posted 14 photos of the blowing engine house.

7 photos

20 photos and 23 photos

5 photos of a walking tour including the 1891 Whitworth Bending Press that was used to make armor plate.

0:34 video of the interior of the blowing engine building

John Brensinger: That view is from the Hoover-Mason trestle walk that's built on the tracks for the ore cars.

73 drone photos

11 photos

15 photos emphasising the blowing engines

Jon Dube posted 6 photos of blast furnaces from other plants. Fortunately, some comments identified it as AI gone bad. So now I'm trying to remember to skip posts by Jon Dube.