I grew up there in the 70’s and 80’s…it was on of the largest employers on the east coast in its prime. Many people had a lot of pride in saying that they worked at “the steel”. It’s a tragedy to see what greed and politics can do to a company that literally built America and much of the rest of the world. Sadly, it’s really a metaphor for the entirety of the country. Thanks for sharing your visit.
It might be greed and politics but it is also exterior economic forces. The EXACT same thing happened to the entire steel industry in England in fact that was the birth place of the industrial revolution. Sheffield steel was probably just as big and many of the industrial processes were developed there. And it’s all gone. Was it greed and politics there too? It seems like too much of a coincidence. There were countries where people were willing to accept a lower standard of living and work for less and probably in more dangerous conditions. Should western governments have done more to protect the primary foundations of industry? I personally think yes, but many free enterprise types say no. It’s an in-going debate. But if the Chinas of the world decide to stop exporting steel to North America what will we do?
@@sblack48 That debate is actually a smaller sampling of the nationalist vs globalist debate that was World War 2. The debate is also settled. One can not allow foreign markets to undercut domestic ones with inferior materials, workmanship, and labor prices while still expecting to maintain one's own country & nation. The free market was never going to work on a global scale because too much of the world is one rung above serfdom. It is a government's first priority to protect the nation and one aspect of that is the nation's workforce being protected from competing against slave labor in places like China and India. None of the countries that this type of industry has been sent to have the intellect to innovate or even fully employ the technology we've given them never mind develop new technology based on it. In the end yes, it was greed and politics because without the greed of politics places like China would have been laughed at. No one would have settled fro what we have now purely so margins could grow fatter which is what happens when production cost drops but unit price remains largely unchanged. Nike produces shoes for pennies but when you go to buy those same sub-dollar shoes what are you charged for them? It wasn't the responsibility of our once strong nations to diminish ourselves so that the undeveloped world can enjoy a taste of our hard earned success. No citizen ever voted for the policies that allowed these things while knowing what was going to result. The politicians sold one bill of goods to us knowing full well what the reality was going to be something far different. Alas, this is what happens when you teach a demographic to hate itself simply for existing and revising all their history to paint them as villains & "oppressors".
It represents what we all stand for in this country. The endeavors that took place to build this are phenomenal and cannot ever be matched. The man in the women that served during wartime these companies set their self aside to see through our freedom and our dignity and the responsibilities in which we are owed as citizens. And it is that which is far more than freedom. It is man-machine man-made and made by hand and the sweat of the brow to the country in which it served and the military that relied on it the most. We owe a great debt of gratitude to this company.
Thank God that this history is being preserved as a historic landmark. As you said, hopefully more of the site will be preserved as a museum for the future to see what once made us the most powerful nation on earth.
A decaying monument to America's once great industrial might, factories all over America won wars, fed families and proved our ambition for a better existence. Great video and perfect music that captures the somber environment.
I worked there in 1969-71 as a crane operator in a rolling mill,32”which fed a finish mill for beams and rails thanks for the memories ,hello from Las Vegas millwrights!
After seeing this video pop up in my feed I went there over the weekend. After seeing it it's a realization our country's manufacturing base is gone and will never come back.
They let it all go. Here in Canada they did the same thing. Almost everything we use is made somewhere else. How many people made a living and raised their family's working in places like this. Sad isn't it. Thank you for this Mr.& Mrs Abom
You know it's great content when you keep hitting the pause button to absorb everything you're seeing. Bethlehem is now on my bucket list of places to visit in my home state. Thank you!
Haunting piece well produced. I feel confident in saying that the vast majority of Americans have no idea what was lost here. Leadership in quantity and quality of steel, how that impacts our economy, security, and capabilities. Keeping leadership in an industry requires cooperation between companies and government that we still haven’t learned to achieve, and to contain the associated corruption that now hurts everyone.
There's something that pulls at the heart-strings when looking at this old equipment. Massive machines; massive pipes, all designed for a purpose, now sitting idle. It's serene, beautiful, yet sad. Thanks for sharing. It's a place I'd love to visit.
Thank you for making this video. I visited Bethlehem Steel in 1973 for a class trip from high school. I graduated that year and spent the next 11 years working in mini mills (rebar& rod mill) in New Jersey. They weren't the giant Bethlehem was but I can definitely appreciate the glory that once was there. I can understand how tears were shed when the legacy of that plant was no more. Thank you again for making this video. God bless you and all those that worked so hard to build America.
Really well done, thank you for this. These facilities when in operation were mind blowing. I had the good fortune of touring Weirton Steel in 1996 while it's was in operation. I've been in many large scale manufacturing facilities in this country and to this day nothing has even come close to that experience. Given Weirton was only a fraction of the size of the Bethlehem works I can only imagine what Bethlehem was like in the the 1940's at the height of war production. Thank you again for taking us along...even this video doesn't do justice to the size of this facility. It was clearly visible on Rte 78 heading west down the hill into Bethlehem and it's not that close to the highway.
I worked for Conrail and used to haul 150 car trains of ore out of Bethlehem to the pier in South Philly, best damn job I ever had! Twelve hours each way, and three locomotives minimum added up to $1,200.00 a week @ 22yo. Bought my girlfriend a 1978 Trans Am for $18,700.00.
When I worked at the Bethlehem Steel Lackawanna NY plant there were 22,000 people employed there. They had their own fire department, police department and medical clinic. It literally was a small city. Everyone in the western NY area knew some one who worked there. I left the main machine shop 50 years ago, but I still have fond memories of my time there, and the great guys I worked with. Thanks again for the memories Adam.
The 5 blast furnaces you toured were never used to make steel. The 5 blast furnaces only smelted the iron ore into pig iron. The pig iron was converted to steel in the Basic Oxygen Furnaces that were located in another part of the plant. The molten pig iron had to be moved by railroad, from the blast furnaces to the BOFs, in large "submarine" or "torpedo" rail cars. The plant's BOFs and the rolling mill were about a 1/2 mile east of were the casino now sits. Unfortunately the BOFs and rolling mills where the actual steel was produced were all demolished and removed years ago. There's nothing left of the BOFs or the rolling mills at that plant. The area where the BOFs and rolling mills were located is part of the plant that was turned into an industrial and office park and event spaces. And the even older historic open hearth furnaces (which were replaced by the BOFs) were in the same area as the BOFs and they're also all gone.
Thanks for sharing this with us! I worked for a brief time with my father, at US Steel - Fairless Works, in South Eastern PA. When I worked there (in the early 90's) the blast furnaces were already shutdown, and demolished. Sheet & Tin, Galvanizing, Cold Rolling, Pickle Lines, Central Maintenance (machine shops, and electric shop) and the power plant was all that was left... So sad, I remember as a kid, everyone worked for the steel mill. Fond memories of a different time.
My dad worked there and his lst shift was dec 17th 1998 i remember it like it was yesterday my mom picked us up from school and dad walked out in tears.we got ice cream that night as a family for the first and only time as a family.ill never forget that day.. for my dad it was his entire career blood sweat and tears. Thanks f or sharing as we havent been back sence tht day. The coolest part is dad got to keep his lathe i still have it and would love to send pics to share on the channel.i relocated it to oregon its huge 14foot ways 36 inch capacity her top speed is 208 revs. Anyways if thats something you would wanna do let me know
I can only imagine how many millions of tons of different steels this place put out to build America and its infrastructure. Beyond amazing what people can do when they come together instead of fighting each other .
My wife and I stopped in there a few weeks ago. It was Oct 22 and went through the museum. That was incredible and erie at the same time. When we got there, we could not find a parking spot because we found out that there was a foot race going on. After coming out of the museum, the crowd was gone, and we could have parked anyplace. We did not walk around the main blast furnace areas, but apparently, they have concerts there with increadable light shows at night. It is just huge, what a place. Thanks for the video it saved me the steps of waking around in pain. I had a hip replaced a few months ago and still recouping.
A GREAT job you both did filming and editing your tour of the blast furnaces and production areas of the plant. Your photos of the signage made me feel like I was with you. It truly was a sad time when the plant closed but somehow Bethlehem survived. Love your channel. Keep doing it.
WOW 😳. Thanks for posting. I worked for Dollinger Steel in Gonzales TX from 88 to 95 and then it was bought out by Nebraska Boiler. Anyway the old maintenance man named Virgil McDaniel, originally came from Bethlehem steel. I learned a lot from him and always enjoyed the stories he had of the place. I had no idea it was that big.
Wow, that is so cool. My dad worked there in the early 20th century. He was born in 1899 and got me going in 1962. It's wild that machinery he worked on is still around.
My dad was a plant production equipment mechanical engineer back in the 60's until the heavy layoffs in the 70's. His most visible work was engineering/design work for the two big gantry cranes that were to the east of the Minsi Trail Bridge. We lived about 8-10 miles away (near Freedom High School). You could hear the plant activities at night from our house. Used to visit him once in awhile for lunch. There were so many employees, and it was crazy to watch that place go under.
Mr. Adam, how wonderful to see this museum. I feel nostalgic but at the same time happy to know the contribution of your people to humanity, of the importance of conceiving these relics and showing them to the world to thank your people for how well they have done things.
It's amazing that Beth Steel stayed in business as long as they did. From the end of WWII, they made only one new investment in steel making, Inland Steel. The Bethlehem, Lackawanna and Baltimore works were creaking operating museums. At the blast furnaces, other mills had installed oven to use the waste heat to preheat the ore before charging the furnace. It saved time and fuel. Also, the steel had to be moved over the vast distances of the plant from one end to another for rolling, etc. All this was done my rail. And after each handling, the metal had to be put into ovens to reheat them.
That is so sad to see. Such an eerie reminder of what awesome manufacturing we used to have in this country and how dilapidated it has become, just like that old building.
I remember going there on school class trips from NJ. I was fascinating watching red hot steel getting formed. They would give you safety glasses and a hard hat to wear. The glasses with Bethlehem Steel written on them you kept.
Indeed, thanks for sharing. My father worked here 38.5 years before retiring in 1982. Tried to get a job there but they saw the writing on the wall. I have walked that property many times in the past 15 years or so and have many memories good and bad. The air quality change and noise pollution come to mind. A great institution.
Music was perfect. Brought me to tears. To see those mighty blast furnaces rusted and cold never to be lit again…what a tragic end for one of the greatest American companies. They were a colossus and now sit in ruin. Beyond sad.
My grandfather worked at Bethlehem in the 50s i still have some brand new never sharpened #3 pencils that came from the plant they are dark green with gold lettering saying... Quality protects jobs. Safety protects people. Bethlehem Steel.
My H.A.C.C class did a tour of the facility in 1974. It was making rail ties. What a sight to see all that red hot steel whipping through miles of rollers to get a final shape. We also saw the machine shop in operation.They were cutting huge pinions--no computers! Just skill.
My dad worked at the Bethlehem mill running samples from the blast furnaces and Bessemer converters to the testing lab in 1938. He was 16 years old at the time. His first real job.
I remember my grandfather telling stories of that place when I was a young man about Bethlehem steel! He worked there back in the late 40’s and early 50’s he was a ironworker in them days
My grandfather, father, and other family members worked there. I remember driving past the active plant many times when I was young in the 70's and 80's... and also driving past it when visiting my brother at Lehigh University. A portion of the old plant has been preserved and converted to a casino. Last time I was there was about 3 years ago. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I appreciate the shots of the plaques describing what we are seeing when you can't define it personally. I can stop the video and read the descriptions. Very helpful. I enjoyed this primarily because my projects have received steel beams originating from this plant. I am not a structural inspector/engineer, but I was in close contact with engineers performing this task during the production and final fabrication of the beams of some major bridges for my projects. The testing and documentation of materials and fabrication I received and reviewed was volumous. Most states are now restricted from using foreign steel on major projects due to the lack of quality control. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing this video. I was on national staff when we did the closing of this mill. A lot of finger pointing but the fact of the matter was the loss of subsidies and the tariffs on imported steel from Korea, Japan and Poland were removed the industries of not only steel but aluminum and copper suffered as well. I did workshops for the dislocation of the workers was huge, mill after mill followed big names like US Steel, Alcoa suffered the same faith. It was a horrible time in the iron ore ranges and for mining.
Went here on a Highschool field trip (Metal shop) back in the 1970's (from Oakland New Jersey). Place was alive and well. Walked passed a lathe that was turning a ships propeller shaft. Thing was HUGE! At that time, never would have thought it was destined to be a ghost town. SAD.
Adam, What an awesome video. I enjoyed pausing and reading about its history. You have inspired me now. I'm hoping to be able to go there and visit the site. Thank you for sharing. Dan 😊
Thank you for the video . I don't think that I am the only one deeply saddened by the loss of American factories . They provided steady work for so many. A local icon in central Pa. was destroyed by a greedy corporate raider. That plant manufactured copper and brass and at the peak of WWII employed thousands.
I visited that area in the late 1980's. It was loud, it was dirty and it was like heaven. You can't really imagine the noise, because it was more than noise. You could hear it, you could feel it in you chest, you could feel it through your feet as the ground trembled under you.
Rick Rowlands of Youngstown Ohio has preserved a large steam engine that was similar to those you pictured. I recall they were used to run the air compressors used to supply air for the blast furnaces. He has it on display at Youngstown Steel Heritage. There are a number of videos on line showing the disassembly and moving the very large engine from a building similar to the one you showed here.
I attended Lehigh University in the early '70's. We could look down the mountain and had a clear view, more or less, of the plant and mill. These ghostly images of what was once a strong and thriving industry are startling.
Hey, I really appreciated being able to read the plaques and get a sense of the process. Also, very nicely produced. The combination of stills and video with the music made for a unique yet impactful experience. We’ll done! Thanks for taking the time to do it right.
Imagine what the gentleman who built that plant would say today. I think we forget how much work these structures take to build and maintain. So much steel that built America came through there. It humbles a man to look at a place like that and realize the number of people required to build and run a plant like that. Not to mention the daily dangers. Thanks for videoing and documenting the historical places you visit! Ps people also forget that when this was built arc welding was not like it is today. So riveting was the main way to join metal pieces. Each rivet was assembled by hand!
The facility is truly amazing and you barely scratched the surface of everything that site has to offer. The city and the Sands (now Wind Creek) casino did a great job at preserving the site for all to visit. Unfortunately even as BS fell into disarray, so is the steel site. If you would have stayed into the night, all the furnaces used to be bathed in light based up on the season, etc. Now only a few are lit due to the lack of maintenance of the lamps. The arch you may have noticed that spans the road is a memorial to the steel and at its base has plaques for the most notable uses of Bethlehem Steel around the states and US Navy. On occasions the arch used to be literally fired up from a gas pipe that is on the top of the arch. In the summertime, the Levitt Pavillion hosts 50+ free concerts from bands selected from across the country. It used to be funny when the arch would fire up and the band would take notice. They stopped firing up the arch a few years back for some unknown reason, probably either maintenance or cost. Also in the summer the parking lot where it looks like you parked hosts Cars & Coffee once a month where they invite owners to bring their cars, often exotics and hot rods for show. There are also volunteers, often ex Bethlehem Steel employees, that give free walking tours of the trestle. Back in the old days, local schools would take field trips to the steel plant and get to stand near the furnaces and feel the heat coming off them and watch them pour the molten steel from the gigantic crucibles. You also stood and saw the huge rolling mills where they rolled out the steel back and forth, stretching them to an elongated I-beams. If you went past the Wind Creek where they have the big sign, it's affixed to one of the remaining two gantry cranes that would move back and forth overtop a gigantic ore pit, which is now where the casino sits.
Having followed your videos for many years, I think this one of your best yet. What an amazing place, beautifully filmed, with very suitable music. The only comment I would make it using Adam for scale in the photos fails slightly here, as it is such a vast plant! 10/10!
beth steel had a location in MD too. my Grandfather worked there. he would take the buss from Essex MD, downtown to Baltimore city, walk past the National Bohemian (Natty Bo) brewery on the way to and from. they had a beer garden with open taps that faced outwards into the garden through the wall, where you could fill up your mug on the way to or from work. he would fill his mug, have a beer on the way to work. then have another beer on the way home. a lot of the other men had money problems. life was hard, and you spend your money on distractions to wind down. gambling, women, alcohol, etc. my wife has an engagement ring that was bought by him for my grandmother with loan shark money. he didnt have money problems, and would give payday loans to the others. he slipped on something and fell on hot steel. it retired him on disability for the rest of his life. he and my grandmother lived a modest life, but a comfortable life, on his pension, until they each passed many, many years later. back when life was short, work was hard, and PTSD was just called growing up.
The area where they are standing was off-limits unless you were an employee. Third Street was the Steel Plant boundary, except for a small section of Second Street near the New Street (Fahy) Bridge. It was noisy and a red dust covered the South Side of town. We loved it.
I feel in the near future we are going to regret loosing places and the skilled workers that made this place and hundreds of other factories and steel plants.
That’s cool. I live in Newcastle NSW Australia and we had a massive steel works. They shut it down and demolished it. The thousands of years experience they lost on the closure of the steel works is a tragedy for Australia.
The gray skies really added to the overall effect of the video. It's too bad you didn't know somebody that knew somebody that could have gotten you inside.
I enjoyed the video. I just wish that they would document it and tear it down. I like history as much if not more than almost anyone I know. However America needs to rebuild not look back, It's sad that the company didn't reinvest in the operation. I lived through something similar, I started working for the company in 1988 and the company had 90% of the North American Sewing thread market. We produced polyester textile filament, the plant I worked at was started in about 1958 and was constantly expanded all the way through the 1990's. It covered about 40 acres under roof and it made the polyester pellets from raw materials . The polyester pellets were then converted into textile filament, we also made specialty engineering resins. The plant had it's own high voltage power line straight from a Duke power generating plant (electricity heated everything at the plant) . Most of the plant was air conditioned (except for polymer production) . The plant could have competed with anyone in the world had the company reinvested in the operation. By 2000's the plant started to slowly shut down. At one time it employed about 3.000 people. When I left in 2006 only about 150 people worked there. It is now being torn down. I was lucky enough to get in eighteen years before I left. When there is no strategic thinking about the business and where it is going, it is simply run into the ground and stripped of value. I guess that's called capitalist wealth creation and wealth destruction. It's not much fun when your on the wrong end.
If we don't know where we have been and how things were originally made, we struggle to improve things! I loved the almost cathedral atmosphere in this video. Even Adam lowered his voice!!!!
As cool as this videp was to watch. It brought tears knowing this plant could still be running strong if we didnt let production go to other countries.
Adam! Abby! Your vidideography and choice of music for your adventure is simply amazing! ... Stay awesome my RUclips's friends.... Always following on your journeys
Grew up in western PA near another Bethlehem plant. It was sad to grow up in steel country and watch it collapse before your very eyes. Thanks for this and love the music you chose. Perfect.
Great video, brought back lots of memories. I spent 9 years as a firefighter at the Beth Steel, Sparrows Point plant in Baltimore. That plant was completely leveled and is all warehouses now.
Great video,I worked for Los Angeles Bethlehem steel in 1968,I was young and desperate for work,I had no idea what I was getting into,I was like going back in time 50 years,it never quits,the heat,noise,massive pieces of hot steel,giant electric furnace,when the switch was flipped it was like a weird move,black smoke sparks everywhere,plus it was rotating shifts,I lasted three months,you had a brass disc with a number,the pay window would find you on a list,pay you in cash,you take your tag and put it on the wall on your way out,crazy,never lose your tag!
I enjoyed the wonderment and fascination you guys display looking at this old steel mill. Having grown up in a steel town in the middle of the rust belt, I forget that not all towns were built on heavy manufacturing like my home. I live between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, where you can't throw a pebble without hitting a steel mill, a pipe mill, a manufacturing plant, or support industry. My dad worked at the steel mill when he was younger. My grandfather practically died there. My ancestors moved here because of the steel mill. So many factors killed the heavy industry here. It's almost all gone now. There's a shopping center where the Carnegie Steel had the massive Homestead Works in Pittsburgh. But I guess that's an improvement over rusting and decaying old mills taking up all the prime real estate. It's too expensive to tear them down, and nobody wants to build big new manufacturing in a "union town". The mill in my home town ran for a mile and a half along the river, and where it stopped, a pair of pipe mills took over for another mile. North of the steel mill was a huge Westinghouse transformer plant and another pipe mill for another mile. The pipe mills are still in business, mostly because they're grandfathered in by the EPA. Nobody else state-side can open a new pipe mill that galvanizes pipe because it's so toxic. Oddly enough our area has one of the highest cancer rates in the country. Heavy industry made this area, but it wasn't without problems. Now we're just left with the problems... I would still like to have gone on a tour of these places when they were at peak production - like during WW2.
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I grew up there in the 70’s and 80’s…it was on of the largest employers on the east coast in its prime. Many people had a lot of pride in saying that they worked at “the steel”. It’s a tragedy to see what greed and politics can do to a company that literally built America and much of the rest of the world. Sadly, it’s really a metaphor for the entirety of the country. Thanks for sharing your visit.
It might be greed and politics but it is also exterior economic forces. The EXACT same thing happened to the entire steel industry in England in fact that was the birth place of the industrial revolution. Sheffield steel was probably just as big and many of the industrial processes were developed there. And it’s all gone. Was it greed and politics there too? It seems like too much of a coincidence. There were countries where people were willing to accept a lower standard of living and work for less and probably in more dangerous conditions. Should western governments have done more to protect the primary foundations of industry? I personally think yes, but many free enterprise types say no. It’s an in-going debate. But if the Chinas of the world decide to stop exporting steel to North America what will we do?
👍😊❤️
thabk you ❤️😘
@@sblack48
The fall of the Roman Empire
@@sblack48 That debate is actually a smaller sampling of the nationalist vs globalist debate that was World War 2. The debate is also settled. One can not allow foreign markets to undercut domestic ones with inferior materials, workmanship, and labor prices while still expecting to maintain one's own country & nation.
The free market was never going to work on a global scale because too much of the world is one rung above serfdom. It is a government's first priority to protect the nation and one aspect of that is the nation's workforce being protected from competing against slave labor in places like China and India. None of the countries that this type of industry has been sent to have the intellect to innovate or even fully employ the technology we've given them never mind develop new technology based on it.
In the end yes, it was greed and politics because without the greed of politics places like China would have been laughed at. No one would have settled fro what we have now purely so margins could grow fatter which is what happens when production cost drops but unit price remains largely unchanged. Nike produces shoes for pennies but when you go to buy those same sub-dollar shoes what are you charged for them?
It wasn't the responsibility of our once strong nations to diminish ourselves so that the undeveloped world can enjoy a taste of our hard earned success. No citizen ever voted for the policies that allowed these things while knowing what was going to result. The politicians sold one bill of goods to us knowing full well what the reality was going to be something far different. Alas, this is what happens when you teach a demographic to hate itself simply for existing and revising all their history to paint them as villains & "oppressors".
It represents what we all stand for in this country. The endeavors that took place to build this are phenomenal and cannot ever be matched. The man in the women that served during wartime these companies set their self aside to see through our freedom and our dignity and the responsibilities in which we are owed as citizens. And it is that which is far more than freedom. It is man-machine man-made and made by hand and the sweat of the brow to the country in which it served and the military that relied on it the most. We owe a great debt of gratitude to this company.
Thank God that this history is being preserved as a historic landmark. As you said, hopefully more of the site will be preserved as a museum for the future to see what once made us the most powerful nation on earth.
Like the music you chose, very dystopian, matches the mood of the view.
A decaying monument to America's once great industrial might, factories all over America won wars, fed families and proved our ambition for a better existence. Great video and perfect music that captures the somber environment.
Born and raised in Bethlehem. Family worked here at Bethlehem steel. I Love my city ❤
I worked there in 1969-71 as a crane operator in a rolling mill,32”which fed a finish mill for beams and rails thanks for the memories ,hello from Las Vegas millwrights!
After seeing this video pop up in my feed I went there over the weekend. After seeing it it's a realization our country's manufacturing base is gone and will never come back.
😢
They let it all go. Here in Canada they did the same thing. Almost everything we use is made somewhere else. How many people made a living and raised their family's working in places like this. Sad isn't it. Thank you for this Mr.& Mrs Abom
You know it's great content when you keep hitting the pause button to absorb everything you're seeing. Bethlehem is now on my bucket list of places to visit in my home state. Thank you!
Ditto!
That solemn music added the perfect touch
Haunting piece well produced. I feel confident in saying that the vast majority of Americans have no idea what was lost here. Leadership in quantity and quality of steel, how that impacts our economy, security, and capabilities. Keeping leadership in an industry requires cooperation between companies and government that we still haven’t learned to achieve, and to contain the associated corruption that now hurts everyone.
Seems like people today are more concerned about pronouns & gender. They just do not have a clue, & take everything for granted.
There's something that pulls at the heart-strings when looking at this old equipment. Massive machines; massive pipes, all designed for a purpose, now sitting idle. It's serene, beautiful, yet sad. Thanks for sharing. It's a place I'd love to visit.
Thank you for making this video. I visited Bethlehem Steel in 1973 for a class trip from high school. I graduated that year and spent the next 11 years working in mini mills (rebar& rod mill) in New Jersey. They weren't the giant Bethlehem was but I can definitely appreciate the glory that once was there. I can understand how tears were shed when the legacy of that plant was no more. Thank you again for making this video. God bless you and all those that worked so hard to build America.
Really well done, thank you for this. These facilities when in operation were mind blowing. I had the good fortune of touring Weirton Steel in 1996 while it's was in operation. I've been in many large scale manufacturing facilities in this country and to this day nothing has even come close to that experience. Given Weirton was only a fraction of the size of the Bethlehem works I can only imagine what Bethlehem was like in the the 1940's at the height of war production. Thank you again for taking us along...even this video doesn't do justice to the size of this facility. It was clearly visible on Rte 78 heading west down the hill into Bethlehem and it's not that close to the highway.
This video made me sense the former heartbeat of steel. Thank you very much for sharing!
I worked for Conrail and used to haul 150 car trains of ore out of Bethlehem to the pier in South Philly, best damn job I ever had! Twelve hours each way, and three locomotives minimum added up to $1,200.00 a week @ 22yo. Bought my girlfriend a 1978 Trans Am for $18,700.00.
When I worked at the Bethlehem Steel Lackawanna NY plant there were 22,000 people employed there. They had their own fire department, police department and medical clinic. It literally was a small city. Everyone in the western NY area knew some one who worked there. I left the main machine shop 50 years ago, but I still have fond memories of my time there, and the great guys I worked with. Thanks again for the memories Adam.
I heard one of the owner knew everyone who worked for him by name. Wow.
I worked at Inland Steel for over 30 years, very similar in size to your plant. Over the years it was taken over by other companies.
The 5 blast furnaces you toured were never used to make steel. The 5 blast furnaces only smelted the iron ore into pig iron. The pig iron was converted to steel in the Basic Oxygen Furnaces that were located in another part of the plant. The molten pig iron had to be moved by railroad, from the blast furnaces to the BOFs, in large "submarine" or "torpedo" rail cars. The plant's BOFs and the rolling mill were about a 1/2 mile east of were the casino now sits. Unfortunately the BOFs and rolling mills where the actual steel was produced were all demolished and removed years ago. There's nothing left of the BOFs or the rolling mills at that plant. The area where the BOFs and rolling mills were located is part of the plant that was turned into an industrial and office park and event spaces. And the even older historic open hearth furnaces (which were replaced by the BOFs) were in the same area as the BOFs and they're also all gone.
Thanks for sharing this with us! I worked for a brief time with my father, at US Steel - Fairless Works, in South Eastern PA. When I worked there (in the early 90's) the blast furnaces were already shutdown, and demolished. Sheet & Tin, Galvanizing, Cold Rolling, Pickle Lines, Central Maintenance (machine shops, and electric shop) and the power plant was all that was left... So sad, I remember as a kid, everyone worked for the steel mill. Fond memories of a different time.
My dad worked there and his lst shift was dec 17th 1998 i remember it like it was yesterday my mom picked us up from school and dad walked out in tears.we got ice cream that night as a family for the first and only time as a family.ill never forget that day.. for my dad it was his entire career blood sweat and tears. Thanks f or sharing as we havent been back sence tht day. The coolest part is dad got to keep his lathe i still have it and would love to send pics to share on the channel.i relocated it to oregon its huge 14foot ways 36 inch capacity her top speed is 208 revs. Anyways if thats something you would wanna do let me know
I can only imagine how many millions of tons of different steels this place put out to build America and its infrastructure. Beyond amazing what people can do when they come together instead of fighting each other .
My wife and I stopped in there a few weeks ago. It was Oct 22 and went through the museum.
That was incredible and erie at the same time. When we got there, we could not find a parking spot because we found out that there was a foot race going on. After coming out of the museum, the crowd was gone, and we could have parked anyplace.
We did not walk around the main blast furnace areas, but apparently, they have concerts there with increadable light shows at night. It is just huge, what a place. Thanks for the video it saved me the steps of waking around in pain. I had a hip replaced a few months ago and still recouping.
A GREAT job you both did filming and editing your tour of the blast furnaces and production areas of the plant. Your photos of the signage made me feel like I was with you. It truly was a sad time when the plant closed but somehow Bethlehem survived. Love your channel. Keep doing it.
I am overcome with grief and tears seeing this. I appreciate the somber reverant video.
WOW 😳. Thanks for posting. I worked for Dollinger Steel in Gonzales TX from 88 to 95 and then it was bought out by Nebraska Boiler. Anyway the old maintenance man named Virgil McDaniel, originally came from Bethlehem steel. I learned a lot from him and always enjoyed the stories he had of the place. I had no idea it was that big.
Wow, that is so cool. My dad worked there in the early 20th century. He was born in 1899 and got me going in 1962. It's wild that machinery he worked on is still around.
My dad was a plant production equipment mechanical engineer back in the 60's until the heavy layoffs in the 70's. His most visible work was engineering/design work for the two big gantry cranes that were to the east of the Minsi Trail Bridge. We lived about 8-10 miles away (near Freedom High School). You could hear the plant activities at night from our house. Used to visit him once in awhile for lunch. There were so many employees, and it was crazy to watch that place go under.
Mr. Adam, how wonderful to see this museum. I feel nostalgic but at the same time happy to know the contribution of your people to humanity, of the importance of conceiving these relics and showing them to the world to thank your people for how well they have done things.
It's amazing that Beth Steel stayed in business as long as they did. From the end of WWII, they made only one new investment in steel making, Inland Steel.
The Bethlehem, Lackawanna and Baltimore works were creaking operating museums.
At the blast furnaces, other mills had installed oven to use the waste heat to preheat the ore before charging the furnace. It saved time and fuel. Also, the steel had to be moved over the vast distances of the plant from one end to another for rolling, etc. All this was done my rail. And after each handling, the metal had to be put into ovens to reheat them.
Thank you for sharing this. You are so blessed, my friend, to have Abby who enjoys seeing this sort of stuff along with you.
Thanks NAFTA
That is so sad to see. Such an eerie reminder of what awesome manufacturing we used to have in this country and how dilapidated it has become, just like that old building.
Remember that every time YOU shop at wallmart
A direct cash pipeline to China
Truly one of your Masterclass videos. The music, the imagery, and the content. All tremendous. Thank you, Adam and Abby. (Abbie?)
Great tribute to Bethlehem Steel. Beautiful pics and the music was so right on! Thanks for posting this.
I remember going there on school class trips from NJ. I was fascinating watching red hot steel getting formed. They would give you safety glasses and a hard hat to wear. The glasses with Bethlehem Steel written on them you kept.
Indeed, thanks for sharing. My father worked here 38.5 years before retiring in 1982. Tried to get a job there but they saw the writing on the wall. I have walked that property many times in the past 15 years or so and have many memories good and bad. The air quality change and noise pollution come to mind. A great institution.
Music was perfect. Brought me to tears. To see those mighty blast furnaces rusted and cold never to be lit again…what a tragic end for one of the greatest American companies. They were a colossus and now sit in ruin. Beyond sad.
My grandfather worked at Bethlehem in the 50s i still have some brand new never sharpened #3 pencils that came from the plant they are dark green with gold lettering saying... Quality protects jobs. Safety protects people. Bethlehem Steel.
My H.A.C.C class did a tour of the facility in 1974. It was making rail ties. What a sight to see all that red hot steel whipping through miles of rollers to get a final shape. We also saw the machine shop in operation.They were cutting huge pinions--no computers! Just skill.
My dad worked at the Bethlehem mill running samples from the blast furnaces and Bessemer converters to the testing lab in 1938. He was 16 years old at the time. His first real job.
Amazing history - Thank you for the video.
Wow. that music is "spooky" lol. That must have been and Abby touch... Good choice... Thanks for sharing such an awsome place....!
I worked for Bethlehem Steel for 33 years at the plant in Steelton PA.
Adam thanks for taking us on this journey and also thank u to all the hard working men and women that were employed there
Hauntingly beautiful !!! Thank you for this.
I remember my grandfather telling stories of that place when I was a young man about Bethlehem steel! He worked there back in the late 40’s and early 50’s he was a ironworker in them days
My grandfather, father, and other family members worked there. I remember driving past the active plant many times when I was young in the 70's and 80's... and also driving past it when visiting my brother at Lehigh University. A portion of the old plant has been preserved and converted to a casino. Last time I was there was about 3 years ago. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I appreciate the shots of the plaques describing what we are seeing when you can't define it personally. I can stop the video and read the descriptions. Very helpful. I enjoyed this primarily because my projects have received steel beams originating from this plant. I am not a structural inspector/engineer, but I was in close contact with engineers performing this task during the production and final fabrication of the beams of some major bridges for my projects. The testing and documentation of materials and fabrication I received and reviewed was volumous. Most states are now restricted from using foreign steel on major projects due to the lack of quality control. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing this video. I was on national staff when we did the closing of this mill. A lot of finger pointing but the fact of the matter was the loss of subsidies and the tariffs on imported steel from Korea, Japan and Poland were removed the industries of not only steel but aluminum and copper suffered as well. I did workshops for the dislocation of the workers was huge, mill after mill followed big names like US Steel, Alcoa suffered the same faith. It was a horrible time in the iron ore ranges and for mining.
Great content, my grandfather was a machinist in #2 for 40 years, retired in 1972.
I remember seeing steel plates near the Kandahar airport in AF that had Bethlehem steel marking on them. Truly global manufacturer!
Went here on a Highschool field trip (Metal shop) back in the 1970's (from Oakland New Jersey). Place was alive and well. Walked passed a lathe that was turning a ships propeller shaft. Thing was HUGE! At that time, never would have thought it was destined to be a ghost town. SAD.
They taught us about the Bessemer process and the open hearth process in grade school. We had Bethlehem films in vo-tech.
Adam, What an awesome video. I enjoyed pausing and reading about its history.
You have inspired me now. I'm hoping to be able to go there and visit the site.
Thank you for sharing. Dan 😊
great choice of music...really gives a good perspective of the "ghostness" of this place. Great series of vids
Very cool and sad at the same time just a shame they are all gone we definitely need industry back in this country.
That place is wild. My 8” Parker 958 vise was from there and still has the brass tag on it.
Thank you for the video . I don't think that I am the only one deeply saddened by the loss of American factories . They provided steady work for so many. A local icon in central Pa. was destroyed by a greedy corporate raider. That plant manufactured copper and brass and at the peak of WWII employed thousands.
Awesome place, Thank you for sharing !!!
I visited that area in the late 1980's. It was loud, it was dirty and it was like heaven. You can't really imagine the noise, because it was more than noise. You could hear it, you could feel it in you chest, you could feel it through your feet as the ground trembled under you.
I remember when that place was humming in the 70s
Very well done. Music was perfect.
It was the pinnacle of engineering and production in its day, sad to see it in this state, Great video, thank you.
Beth Steel was a source of pride for us.
Rick Rowlands of Youngstown Ohio has preserved a large steam engine that was similar to those you pictured. I recall they were used to run the air compressors used to supply air for the blast furnaces. He has it on display at Youngstown Steel Heritage. There are a number of videos on line showing the disassembly and moving the very large engine from a building similar to the one you showed here.
We still have rails in use with dates from 1920’s to the 40’s from Bethlehem.
I attended Lehigh University in the early '70's. We could look down the mountain and had a clear view, more or less, of the plant and mill. These ghostly images of what was once a strong and thriving industry are startling.
Thank you both for the time and effort that went into showing us this piece of our history.
Hey, I really appreciated being able to read the plaques and get a sense of the process. Also, very nicely produced. The combination of stills and video with the music made for a unique yet impactful experience. We’ll done! Thanks for taking the time to do it right.
Amazing how they were able to preserve a true monument that built America. Very cool, thanks for sharing
Imagine what the gentleman who built that plant would say today. I think we forget how much work these structures take to build and maintain. So much steel that built America came through there. It humbles a man to look at a place like that and realize the number of people required to build and run a plant like that. Not to mention the daily dangers. Thanks for videoing and documenting the historical places you visit!
Ps people also forget that when this was built arc welding was not like it is today. So riveting was the main way to join metal pieces. Each rivet was assembled by hand!
That entire place was hand built
@@VINCENTSTETCH-ij2ds yes!
I grew up in Coatesville PA, another dead steel mill town.
The facility is truly amazing and you barely scratched the surface of everything that site has to offer. The city and the Sands (now Wind Creek) casino did a great job at preserving the site for all to visit. Unfortunately even as BS fell into disarray, so is the steel site. If you would have stayed into the night, all the furnaces used to be bathed in light based up on the season, etc. Now only a few are lit due to the lack of maintenance of the lamps. The arch you may have noticed that spans the road is a memorial to the steel and at its base has plaques for the most notable uses of Bethlehem Steel around the states and US Navy. On occasions the arch used to be literally fired up from a gas pipe that is on the top of the arch. In the summertime, the Levitt Pavillion hosts 50+ free concerts from bands selected from across the country. It used to be funny when the arch would fire up and the band would take notice. They stopped firing up the arch a few years back for some unknown reason, probably either maintenance or cost. Also in the summer the parking lot where it looks like you parked hosts Cars & Coffee once a month where they invite owners to bring their cars, often exotics and hot rods for show. There are also volunteers, often ex Bethlehem Steel employees, that give free walking tours of the trestle. Back in the old days, local schools would take field trips to the steel plant and get to stand near the furnaces and feel the heat coming off them and watch them pour the molten steel from the gigantic crucibles. You also stood and saw the huge rolling mills where they rolled out the steel back and forth, stretching them to an elongated I-beams. If you went past the Wind Creek where they have the big sign, it's affixed to one of the remaining two gantry cranes that would move back and forth overtop a gigantic ore pit, which is now where the casino sits.
Having followed your videos for many years, I think this one of your best yet. What an amazing place, beautifully filmed, with very suitable music. The only comment I would make it using Adam for scale in the photos fails slightly here, as it is such a vast plant! 10/10!
beth steel had a location in MD too. my Grandfather worked there. he would take the buss from Essex MD, downtown to Baltimore city, walk past the National Bohemian (Natty Bo) brewery on the way to and from. they had a beer garden with open taps that faced outwards into the garden through the wall, where you could fill up your mug on the way to or from work. he would fill his mug, have a beer on the way to work. then have another beer on the way home.
a lot of the other men had money problems. life was hard, and you spend your money on distractions to wind down. gambling, women, alcohol, etc.
my wife has an engagement ring that was bought by him for my grandmother with loan shark money. he didnt have money problems, and would give payday loans to the others.
he slipped on something and fell on hot steel. it retired him on disability for the rest of his life.
he and my grandmother lived a modest life, but a comfortable life, on his pension, until they each passed many, many years later.
back when life was short, work was hard, and PTSD was just called growing up.
An interesting piece of history. Thanks for sharing.
The area where they are standing was off-limits unless you were an employee. Third Street was the Steel Plant boundary, except for a small section of Second Street near the New Street (Fahy) Bridge. It was noisy and a red dust covered the South Side of town. We loved it.
These videos inspired my son and I to visit Bethlehem Steel today. Amazing! Thank you for spreading the word.
I feel in the near future we are going to regret loosing places and the skilled workers that made this place and hundreds of other factories and steel plants.
That’s cool. I live in Newcastle NSW Australia and we had a massive steel works. They shut it down and demolished it. The thousands of years experience they lost on the closure of the steel works is a tragedy for Australia.
The gray skies really added to the overall effect of the video. It's too bad you didn't know somebody that knew somebody that could have gotten you inside.
You never know what you had till it's gone!
I enjoyed the video. I just wish that they would document it and tear it down. I like history as much if not more than almost anyone I know. However America needs to rebuild not look back, It's sad that the company didn't reinvest in the operation. I lived through something similar, I started working for the company in 1988 and the company had 90% of the North American Sewing thread market. We produced polyester textile filament, the plant I worked at was started in about 1958 and was constantly expanded all the way through the 1990's. It covered about 40 acres under roof and it made the polyester pellets from raw materials . The polyester pellets were then converted into textile filament, we also made specialty engineering resins. The plant had it's own high voltage power line straight from a Duke power generating plant (electricity heated everything at the plant) . Most of the plant was air conditioned (except for polymer production) . The plant could have competed with anyone in the world had the company reinvested in the operation. By 2000's the plant started to slowly shut down. At one time it employed about 3.000 people. When I left in 2006 only about 150 people worked there. It is now being torn down. I was lucky enough to get in eighteen years before I left. When there is no strategic thinking about the business and where it is going, it is simply run into the ground and stripped of value. I guess that's called capitalist wealth creation and wealth destruction. It's not much fun when your on the wrong end.
If we don't know where we have been and how things were originally made, we struggle to improve things! I loved the almost cathedral atmosphere in this video. Even Adam lowered his voice!!!!
This is on my bucket list for sure to visit
As cool as this videp was to watch. It brought tears knowing this plant could still be running strong if we didnt let production go to other countries.
Steel production follows the end markets: cars, washing machines, etc. So if they are made elsewhere, that's where they source the metal
Great video great sound track. Very atmospheric.
I grew up in Baltimore. This is REAL American history. Thanks for doing such a great video.
I visited Sparrows Point while it still operated in the '70's
Adam! Abby! Your vidideography and choice of music for your adventure is simply amazing!
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Stay awesome my RUclips's friends....
Always following on your journeys
Grew up in western PA near another Bethlehem plant. It was sad to grow up in steel country and watch it collapse before your very eyes. Thanks for this and love the music you chose. Perfect.
Great video, brought back lots of memories. I spent 9 years as a firefighter at the Beth Steel, Sparrows Point plant in Baltimore. That plant was completely leveled and is all warehouses now.
Great video,I worked for Los Angeles Bethlehem steel in 1968,I was young and desperate for work,I had no idea what I was getting into,I was like going back in time 50 years,it never quits,the heat,noise,massive pieces of hot steel,giant electric furnace,when the switch was flipped it was like a weird move,black smoke sparks everywhere,plus it was rotating shifts,I lasted three months,you had a brass disc with a number,the pay window would find you on a list,pay you in cash,you take your tag and put it on the wall on your way out,crazy,never lose your tag!
Thanks for sharing this. You two be safe.
Incredible. Thank you for sharing.
Good job Abby & Adam. Well done.
Very interesting and impressive pictures! Thanks for showing! - Best regards from Dresden! 👍👍👍😎
Thank you very much for the tour
I enjoyed the wonderment and fascination you guys display looking at this old steel mill. Having grown up in a steel town in the middle of the rust belt, I forget that not all towns were built on heavy manufacturing like my home. I live between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, where you can't throw a pebble without hitting a steel mill, a pipe mill, a manufacturing plant, or support industry. My dad worked at the steel mill when he was younger. My grandfather practically died there. My ancestors moved here because of the steel mill. So many factors killed the heavy industry here. It's almost all gone now. There's a shopping center where the Carnegie Steel had the massive Homestead Works in Pittsburgh. But I guess that's an improvement over rusting and decaying old mills taking up all the prime real estate. It's too expensive to tear them down, and nobody wants to build big new manufacturing in a "union town". The mill in my home town ran for a mile and a half along the river, and where it stopped, a pair of pipe mills took over for another mile. North of the steel mill was a huge Westinghouse transformer plant and another pipe mill for another mile. The pipe mills are still in business, mostly because they're grandfathered in by the EPA. Nobody else state-side can open a new pipe mill that galvanizes pipe because it's so toxic. Oddly enough our area has one of the highest cancer rates in the country. Heavy industry made this area, but it wasn't without problems. Now we're just left with the problems... I would still like to have gone on a tour of these places when they were at peak production - like during WW2.
In 1958 I was 7 years old the first time I entered Bethlehem STeel . I went with my brother who was picking up a load of steel.