I was born and raised in Bethlehem. My father's family all worked for Bethlehem Steel, as did I for four summers between semesters in college. It was an experience I would not trade for anything. Your video brought back memories of my times at the plant, during which I worked throughout its entire span along the Lehigh River, from Hellertown to Fountain Hill. My father spent most of his career in the 12"&14" "hand mill," where he literally wrestled red hot ribbons of steel from one bank of rolls to another. He had hands of stone and grip strength like nobody else. The bankruptcy of the company was caused by a combination of factors; foreign competition (mostly Japan and Germany, which we ironically rebuilt after WW II), internal financial mismanagement and lack of vision, union avarice and employee apathy. My father worked there his entire adult life and told me to never entertain the thought that I could do likewise, since "this plant won't be here in twenty years." He could see the future, and lived to witness his prediction come true. The Bethlehem of my youth, with its exquisite Eastern European culture brought by the employees from their natal lands, is no longer, and this nation is the poorer for its demise.
Would you consider the lack of modernizing the smelters a factor into why it couldn't compete with japanese and German steel? Or was labor? I remember hearing the same you referenced that we helped rebuild Japan and Germany to use Electric Arc Furnace as supposed to blast furnaces.
@@DurzoBlunts Interestingly enough, Germany is generally seen as a high labor cost country - and we lost our steel industry to international sources that can do it cheaper. Our exports are generally based not on cost, but on expertise, which is why Siemens recently improved its position in the US rail market, for example. Surprisingly, the opposite is happening with Tesla - but then, ICE car manufacturers worldwide seem to have been caught flat-footed with the switch to EVs.
It's a myth that the US rebuilt Japan and Germany. The Marshall Plan (50% loans) was mostly created to prevent Western Europe from turning communist and to keep the US running on a high production level. Its total value adjusted for inflation was $115 billion (2021) and Germany got 11% of that. You don't rebuilt a country as shot up and stripped of all working factories and all intellectual property with $12.5 billion. The Marshall Plan was nice but mostly created to serve US interests. Japan and Germany rebuilt Japan and Germany.
Great work!! My family owned a large steel fabrication plant in New York. We were a long time customer of Bethlehem. We used to take employees on yearly “field trips” to the plant which was always so impressive. Thanks for making this tribute to what was an amazing part of our country’s history.
I worked in the Bethlehem plant around 1970. I will now set out my explanation of why BS failed. The defined benefit pensions were unaffordably generous. Most of the plant was built before 1930. The only significant post-1960 addition to the plant was the Basic Oxygen Furnace in 1967. Injection molding and continuous casting were never implemented. Continuous casting of beams from fresh liquid steel was simply not possible. This dramatically raised the energy cost of many BS products. Finally, a steadily growing share of US steel production was from minimills recycling scrap. I submit that Nucor pulled the trigger on the American virgin steel industry.
I agree that Nucor was and is aggressive in using EAF and continuous casting producing better quality steel with less environmental impact, recycling steel, and producing most of steel needed in US. Lower labour costs, greenfield plant all lowered input costs.
I worked for USS in the 70's and 80's. Bethlehem was particularly prone to mini mills because their product mix leaned towards heavy steel, not light cold rolled. Their products were among the first to be taken over by the mini mill companies like Nucor. USS also made these products but was quicker to shed them in the 80's when the competition got tougher. Bethlehem was top heavy.in management. Their corporate offices in Bethlehem were but in the shape of a plus sign to allow more prestigious corner offices, eight per floor. For all the reputation of Homer Research, Bethlehem had a major not invented here problem in the 70's and 80's, even worse than USS. Homer's research seemed to be more focused on optimizing existing technology than adopting or developing new technology. They stuck with old obsolete technology in their mills for far too long. Failure to adopt continuous casting was but one example. As Steelworker wages skyrocketed in the 70's and domestic and foreign competition were nipping at their heels they made very few changes to improve labor prodictivity.
I think you understate the roll that technology played in Bethlehem’s demise. The advent of the electric arc furnace in large numbers plus Bethlehem’s enormous cost structure meant that they just couldn’t compete. Their costs were too high. Their technology, their union contracts, their excessive management structure, golf courses, executive perks, etc. all contributed to their cost problems. In short it was a classic case of decades of mismanagement and not seeing the direction the industry was headed and getting ahead of it. It’s a classic case of the market doing what the market does.
The U.S. steel producers filed several cases with the FTC and also successfully lobbied congress to add tariffs to important steel, claiming that the importers competed unfairly. Normally, you'd expect companies to use the "relief" period during which the tariffs are active to restructure their production facilities in order to increase their competitiveness. U.S. steel producers for the most part didn't do this, and eventually the tariffs ended, and claims of unfair trade were resolved in the importers' favor. The rise of using recycled steel as raw material for electric mills provided a much cheaper process for making steel that became common world-wide, but not at traditional U.S. steel mills. The refusal to change brought about their own demise.
I hauled a lot of steel out of Bethlehem back in the 80s. I got to meet a lot of great people there and always enjoyed picking up there. Too bad what happened to that great company.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video, I am a carpenter of 23 years, and I own a Welding and Fabrication company. It was so refreshing to get facts in a short amount of time with wonderful visual representations of what you're describing. It was a no-nonsense look back in time, please keep up the videos, you are appreciated, and one of a kind...
I started with Bethlehem Steel right out of college in 1969 with a training program there in Pennsylvania teaching us about the complete process as well as the products and services of all the divisions. Mornings in lectures and afternoons to each operation. After weeks I went to the new Burns Harbor plant where I worked in the 160 in plate mill. At that time they were unloading South Korean hot roll coils across the small harbor destined for the auto industry parts manufacturers. I saw then that American steel was doomed.
In the 1980’s I worked in the Aluminum extrusion business. Our plant manager told us that the Chinese were going to get into the extrusion business and there was nothing we could do about it. We can’t compete with them, he said and so the way our company was going to make money was by teaching them how to do it. I said I thought he should ask the steel industry if they thought that was a good idea. Remember people, Made in the U.S.A.
I spent 50 years operating a steel fabrication and erection company in NJ. Bethlehem Steel was our major supplier until they closed down operations. We would buy about 2,000 tons per year. They delivered quality products on time with all required markings and certifications. When they stopped producing steel our industry began relying on service centers for our materials. Buy American almost disappeared overnight.
Thanks and we'll done. I was at Lehigh University in the late 1960s and went on a tour of the plant when it was in operation. They were quite proud of the development of steel that would self protect with a layer of rust, that steel was used for the New Street Bridge in Bethlehem linking south Bethlehem to downtown. Back then if you told people the plant would be closed in 25 years I think most would disbelieve you.
@@elithepitbulldog2209 Well geez! Thank you Captain Late to the Party! I knew about Cor Ten steel since the 70's. NCR in Peachtree City Ga has Cor Ten cladding. Numerous light poles on the interstate highways are Cor Ten. Preaching to the choir son.
I had a buddy that was an overhead Crain operator he said he would go into work in the morning and sit in the cab of his Crain smoking drinking coffee and reading the newspaper sometimes for hours before the folks on the floor needed him to move something he said there was alot of nothing getting done but that was his point of view he passed away this past year I miss him he was a good friend
One correction: Steel beams and other structural steel were not cast material and are not produced in the foundry. They were rolled from ingots or blooms in various mills in the plant including the 42", 48", Combo Mill and the 12"&14" Mill. Other products were rolled on the 35", 18", 22" and the 3-9"/3-12" Hand Mills. The 35" and 18" Mills produced blooms and the 22" Mill produced round stock used to make drill collars.
Never happen. EPA govt regs and lots of $$$$$$$$.plus no one wants it in their backyard. 🙄🙄. Sad what our country has turned into. Rely on everyone else instead of ourselves.
@@RM..... It’s really a slap in the face when you have to use foreign made materials to build in this country. I wonder if the same politicians that made it possible for the EPA regulations benefited from the shutdown. I was born at the wrong time and being a trucker it hurts me physically to see the whole country in ruins. It really does.
Mr Torres, this plant and most of the others in the US are massively out of date and would need to be rebuilt from scratch with the latest modern equipment so with out massive investment no.
@@charlescann531 If we have the money to bail out banks why doesn’t our govt. invest in its own country! Seems like a no brainer to me but I’m just a small grain of sand in a mile Long Beach.
Very good video. If anyone was interested, the cylinders at 4:50 are called stoves. They are on a cycle of heating using an internal burner, then on a blast cycle. Only one of the 3 is on blast at a time. Very old ones are manually changed over. All operating stoves around the world now are automatic.
Bethlehem Steel had a slow decline when they did not get the WTC steel contract in the 1960s; it was cheaper to bring finished steel from Japan. Management did not take this threat seriously. The 25 years and out policy was not financially backed with cash. They would do that later was the policy of management at that time, it was thought that future sales would cover that financial short fall.
The town did a nice job preserving the “steel stacks” as are they are nestled among a casino/hotel, local theatre, and PBS TV station. I attended a company meeting at the theatre in 2015 and was surprised to find a board with former steel company employees, including my father’s name, which was part of fundraiser that me and my siblings had donated to many years earlier. Brought tears to my eyes.
I spent a summer during my college years working in an area of the plant then called the "cinder dump" checking for outside railcars so the company would not have to pay demurrage daily charges to the Lehigh Valley railroad. My parents lived in Bethlehem (and Allentown at the end) starting in 1946 until their passing. Great memories. Thanks for the up-close view today.
I delivered truckloads of stone to the old steel mills in around 2005 to 2007. I have no idea what the used the stone for, but the place is extraordinary. Driving in, you can see how this dominated the landscape. You get a sense of how powerful American industry was. To bring America to a level to compete with another entire continent, or even on a world level. Besides the mill, there's also fascinating homes and old storefronts built in the area. Videos like these don't do justice to the ghosts you feel when you enter a place like this. It just feels like a glimpse of an America we will never see again, and that's a damn shame.
@@theroadbackhome2022 it was just quarried stone. Maybe they were building a roadway into something or adding to a parking lot somewhere, but our company sent maybe 10 trucks a day, 1 or 2 days a week for almost 2 years.
I work in Bethlehem today, and most of us who do consider the remaining structures from the mill to be landmarks. If you have ever visited at night, you've seen the towers of the blast furnaces lit in bright colors, and the space near them has been used for Musikfest for many years, with the furnace towers as a backdrop for excellent music. I think a lot of us hope that those furnaces will be preserved in some fashion as a part of the museum, or just as local landmarks.
I don’t mean to nitpick but Bethlehem Steel is directly East of Allentown and probably only 5 miles away. The Lehigh Valley is an underrated place. I know people from there will say “it’s not what it used to be” and people from the outside looking in won’t know what it is (which I hope changes) or they will hate on it especially within pennsylvania, but I’ve lived in 6 states and 3 countries and I always loved the Lehigh valley. Allentown is the 3rd largest city in PA behind Philly and Pittsburgh and the Lehigh Valley has almost a million people and 3 beautiful cities all in a line. If you’re ever in the area, go check out historic Bethlehem (especially in winter), the waterfront in Easton, and Cedar Beach or 7th and Hamilton in Allentown. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have and I wish that you have pride in where you’re from the way Allentonians should and sadly generally don’t.
It was some place when it was up and running. I used to run fuel oil in there, and other days take coal tar emulsion outta there. I liked being there when it was getting dark and they would have a rail car full of molten slag glowing and sparks shooting out of hopper sitting on a siding. Was a neat plant... shame it is gone...
I live in Bethlehem and find the history of Bethlehem steel fascinating and political. I wasn't alive when the company was running so its interesting to hear and learn everyone's perspective. The workers even in a union never had the last say so I never fully agree on unions and pensions were the ultimate downfall of the company. The profit margins of this company were insane. The pensions were compensated by raising prices and because the company didn't modernize they couldn't raise prices. To see the old steel mill as a casino is symbolic to life in America rn, makes you wonder if we all being left to rust.
I'm old enough to remember when the steel unions had nationwide strikes every 5 years. But in 1970 during the latest strike some customers reluctantly tried buying Japanese steel. They were surprised the quality was as good or better than American made steel. And it was cheaper. So even after the strike was settled more and more customers started buying steel from Japan. At that time China was not even in the picture yet.
Not sure where you got your information. Profits were no doubt heavy during the war years and even in the 1950's-60's, but "insane" profits were definitely not being made during the last 25 years of operations at the Bethlehem Plant. If you factor in the unfunded pension obligation, it's likely we were losing money on every ton shipped out the door. You are definitely incorrect if you believe pensions weren't a big factor in the downfall of the company. Bethlehem's pension was underfunded by $2 Billion (with a "B"). This affected its stock price and its ability to borrow the capital needed to modernize. When I left the company in 1997 we had about 75,000 employees on pension, but only about 14,000 active employees nationwide.... not a good formula for any business.
@@dfirth224 Bethlehem, National steel, Great Lakes and several other steel companies disappeared due to the congressional paranoia of unions. Both republican and democratic parties targeted the Teamsters, USW (Steel Workers) and to a lesser degree UAW (NAFTA). Congress didn't appreciate so much power in hands other than government. The steel industry was targeted with heavy regulation that strangulated the production of steel. Congress was on a roll and went totally power mad. Trucking companies that survived the Great Depression went belly up under deregulation (a serious misnomer) Teamsters we're put out of jobs, steel companies were idled, auto companies outsourced manufacturing offshore (now manufacturing is in China a communist slave state under NAFTA) This is the legacy of the democratic presidency of Jimmy Carter and the globalists, followed by other globalists like G H W Bush, Clinton, J W Bush, Obama and now Biden. The democrats are pro labor yes, just not 🚫 pro union.
@dfirth224 lol, ah no! Bethlehem, National steel, Great Lakes and several other steel companies disappeared due to the congressional paranoia of unions. Both republican and democratic parties targeted the Teamsters, USW (Steel Workers) and to a lesser degree UAW (NAFTA). Congress didn't appreciate so much power in hands other than government. The steel industry was targeted with heavy regulation that strangulated the production of steel. Congress was on a roll and went totally power mad. Trucking companies that survived the Great Depression went belly up under deregulation (a serious misnomer) Teamsters we're put out of jobs, steel companies were idled, auto companies outsourced manufacturing offshore (now manufacturing is in China a communist slave state under NAFTA) This is the legacy of the democratic presidency of Jimmy Carter and the globalists, followed by other globalists like G H W Bush, Clinton, J W Bush, Obama and now Biden. The democrats are pro labor yes, just not 🚫 pro union.
@@rockeerockey6941 The Wall street gamblers like things the way they are. They are always crying about how the government is costing them money when they love a bailout and government contract. The Wall street bosses like that way. They like having us being a net importer because its good for capital formation. They also opened all these low wage mini mills. Their idea of being pro labor is having you work the longest hours for the lowest pay. You can't trust either party because they are both controlled by the wall street gamblers.
EAF technology wasn't fully developed and used widespread in steel mills until the late 60's and 70's, giving rise to minimills. The rebuilding of German and Japanese mills involved blast furnaces and conventional integrated steelmaking. Bethlehem Steel was so insular and conservative that it was the last integrated producer to embrace BOF technology, clinging to open hearth furnaces to convert iron to steel long after most of her competitors built BOF's. My dad worked in purchasing at their main office in Bethlehem from 1951 to 1968, and often lamented at Beth Steel's reluctance to embrace new technology. They hired enginheers directly from Lehigh University, which they supported, and only promoted from within, people who were indoctrinated in how they do business, discouraging innovations not developed by their own Homer Laboratory. My family worked at Bethlehem 3 generations, starting in 1901 with my great grandfather. When it closed it felt like the death of a family member, but no funeral to attend.
The video neglected to discuss the nationwide 116 day strike of workers at all steel mills in the country in 1959. The lack of available steel forced customers to buy imported steel to keep their businesses solvent. That greatly increased the market share of imported steel from that time forward, and by the 1970's the oversupply of steel in the US market and worldwide slashed profits of US producers. Also, the environmental awareness starting in 1969 with Each Day led to the EPA and through the 1970's US mills had to spend most of their capital on retrofitting with pollution control equipment instead of replacing older obsolete production equipment with new, more efficient equipment. The collapse and shrinkage of steel production in the 70's and beyond had many contributing causes, including government, mismanagement, labor, consumer, banking and global economics.
This makes sense. It is interesting how the largest companies are always the slowest to adapt to new technology. The same thing happened to Baldwin and Penn Central.
I work at the old Cornwall Quarry. It is called PRL inc now. I love 15 minutes away in Lebanon City. The whole city was build around our Bethlehem steel plant. The railroad cuts the town in half, with all the old plant building lining the railroad. This video was pretty cool, thanks for sharing.
As a former steel worker at Laclede Steel at Fairless Works, it's a shame 146 years of progress and adapting to the times and then to out the way it did. Makes my heart ache.
In 1981 I had worked with a guy that came to Laplace, to work at Bayou Steel, a mini-mill that was new and just brought on line. The guys name was Michael Gay, he was laid-off at Bethlehem and moved his family down to Louisiana. Mike has passed on now and I can say, He was a damn good man.
Great job!. I'm building an abandoned steel mill for a game and your video gave me some very good views for my models. That's my hobby, but I service wide format printers for a living. I live in Chicago, so I used to service Bethlehem steel, US steel, Midwest steel, and LTV steel, all around Gary Indiana from June of 1984 until they all one by one closed up in the 90's. It's so sad to see all that impressive industry and capitol investment just abandoned and all the workers cut loose. As you mention, they built this country and helped us win allot of wars. Best regards to you!
I am glad that the video was useful. I agree that it is sad to see all of the effort that they put into building the place put to waste. The worst part for me is seeing and entire community that was centered around the steel plant effectively die off.
All those mills are still running. US Steel South works in Chicago closed. Inland, LTV, and Bethlehem are now Cleveland Cliffs. Midwest Steel is now a part of US Steel Gary Works.
Thank you for a great video !! I worked for B S the summer of 1965 as a summer employee. I made money for my college tuition. The work provided an education as good as I received at college !!
Well done, very good information. We were just walking the Bethlehem steel mill last week, and found all your information is very informative. Thank you for making this video.
Yeah and cheap is whet you get ! When I worked in the steel mill, we bought 6 by 6 billets from China one time that steal had scrap metal in them ! Those was NOT worth a shit! Get what you pay for ! 😂
It's really truly sad that Bethlehem steel had to close.It's closure clearly hurt the economy of allentown which was clearly the inspiration of the billy joel song Allentown,a sad song that every time I hear it, it has me almost in tears.My heart goes out to all the 30,000 people that worked there and lost there jobs when this industrial giant closed and went bankrupt,so truly,heart breakingly sad.John M Guinto
It is definitely sad to think of all the people who had their lives turned upside down when this plant closed. The workers did everything they could to keep that place running and it really was a tough luck situation for them.
I watched a documentary on the local PBS channel here in Buffalo and it said our Lackawanna plant employed 25,000 workers at one point. Some of the older gus who were interviewed said alot of the problem was also that the customers they once had became their competition. These countries started producing steel.
The mill in Bethlehem, PA didn't die, it moved. The structural steel it produced is now produced at Gerdau Petersburg. The forge shop is still running as Lehigh Heavy Forge.
The plant was obsolete. The compressors shown should have been replaced in the 1970's or 1980's. They dumped ore from the pit right into the furnace. Other mills had ovens that used waste heat captured from the furnace to preheat the ore. Also, if you look at films of this plant in the 1970's, the steel was moved about the grounds several times during rolling. By rail, which required a locomotive and rail cars. After each move, the steel had to reheated in an oven. This added extra costs that other mills didn't have.
There was a big Bethlehem steel over here at the Port of Indiana right off of lake Michigan that all closed at the same time has inland steel.. they ended up selling to arcelormittal bought all of Bethlehem in inland and then they sold and now it's Cleveland cliffs they own both of the Mills and they are only running at like 30 to 40% capacity.. United States steel is doing really good over here in Gary still.. during the 80s all the steel mills that stretch over 25 miles from east Chicago to the port of indiana we're running great and now a couple of them have closed or sold out but they are still making steel pretty good over here in indiana.. there was several big steelmakers over here like LTV Bethlehem inland Midwest Republic Bethlehem uss.. now it's mostly Cleveland cliffs and the United States steel and there are still several other steel processing plants over here doing ok
@@theroadbackhome2022 yes it's still cranking over here.. us steel is doing great over here.. Cleveland cliffs is doing good too.. Cleveland cliffs has an eaf and the largest blast furnace in north America.. Then BP refinery is in the mix.. heavy industrial area that stretches from south Chicago through whiting, through east Chicago, through Hammond and wraps around..
I grew up in Bethlehem and have heard the theory that unaffordable union pensions are reason the mill closed, however I believe that explanation is more a product of the political leanings of the person explaining it to me than the reality of the situation. Also, the office building (called Martin tower) was demolished a couple years ago and there is also a center for the arts next to the old mill and museum where we host performers for Musikfest every August.
Musikfest is what genre? I went to a few of the NEARfests @ Zoellner; good times. It moved to Trenton, NJ for two years; larger auditorium but rental rates rose & it returned to Zoellner. Now I just enjoy classical..
The haters refuse to acknowledge the fact that Asian steel companies destroyed our steel industry be heavily subsidizing their exports to this country, and our government refused to do anything about it, instead telling the public that "the union did it".
Going off the gold standard actually decreased the value of the US dollar, which made it cheaper for other countries to purchase American exports. If anything, going off the gold standard and the subsequent inflation would have actually made the mill more competitive.
You are probably right about the value of the dollar. The real problem was the difference in labor costs which was dictated by the cost of living of the workers.
Well they used to do something there and now they don’t ..so my question to anyone reading this is where do they do it at now? Where are the big furnaces heating up at today ? Not in Pennsylvania and not much going on in Gary Indiana anymore or in any surrounding Midwest state? Do I give you an accurate picture or do I exaggerate? There are many to blame (and we all know that) but the more you know about matters such as this ..the more we can educate ourselves the stronger we can be in the defense of not letting a lot of these things happen to us again ( all of this has happened in my lifetime …Basically the last 50 years ) So where are they doing all of this ?…(That used to be done here) and don’t forget that the transportation was assisted by the proximity of the great lakes ..for it all kind of worked hand in hand for all of us here in The good old USA
@@jeffkujawa803 The US Still makes about 100 million tons of steel a year, same as 1976. The difference is that back.then 90%.was made in blast furnace steel mills like Bethlehem. The rest was made by melting scrap in electric arc furnaces, aka mini mills, scattered around the country. Now only about 20% of the steel is made in blast furnace plants, the rest by melting scrap in much larger mini mills. Whole large steel companies, like Nucor and Steel Dynamics to name two, have grown mostly from scratch since 1976. Add 20 to 30 million tons of imported steel a year and God knows how much imported as finished Toyotas and appliances
@@jeffkujawa803 We still make about 100 million tons of steel a year in the USA, same as 1976. Bzck then 10 million tons a year was made by melting scrap at so called mini mills with electric arc furnaces. The rest was made from iron ore at places like Bethlehem. Now about 80 million tons a year is made by melting scrap in mini mills that aren't so mini anymore
Great video - lots of fascinating details. A correction on a minor point. At the outset you state that the plant was founded in 1857, on the heels of the Civil War. The Civil war began in 1861 and ended in 1865. Better description: “The plant was built in 1857, at the threshold of the Civil War.”
I currently work at a steel mill in Burns harbor Indiana, and the video of the mill you were showing looks to be in about as good of shape as the one I'm at that is still running and producing iron, I am on the blast furnace and it is old and deteriorating year after year, just wonder how many years of iron production it has left before it finally crashes..
The sad part is that many US companies just let their plants decay until they can no longer operate effectively, then relocate to some place that is cheaper.
There's a video that was posted on RUclips 15 years ago that was filmed at Bethlehem in 1994 titled "Dumping slag at Bethlehem", that seems to be in people's recommendations recently but I remember watching it when I was a kid. If it wasn't for the algorithm I never would have know this place failed.
Great video with beautiful shots. Learning a little bit of history and primary used by me to weather my Walthers blast furnace for my n-scale model steel industry railroad. Thanks
Great video. our steelworks at redcar,northeast uk closed down, last week the blast furnace was blown up/demolished. its on you tube. production was 10,000 tons per day. this month the gas stoves will be demolished too. we have very little heavy industry now. Unions,cheap foreign imports,and just badly run all round.
I can tell you what didn't help BHS Back in the mid 70ds I got out of highschool and my uncle got me a job at crest steel in Wilmington CA , Thay were adding more shifts to cut parts for the Alaskan pipeline and on TV when they were selling the idea of a pipeline and it was going to give BHS a (quote shot in the arm) , one of the first things that I was instructed to do is take a 7 inch disk grinder and grinder off the white stamp on the sheets of steel that reads made in Korea and a huge series of numbers these emblems were about 20 inches wide and a foot tall,. All of the steel was certified and a visual inspection was done every few weeks and when that black Lincoln continental showed up and the miinala folder was passed through the window I always wondered what was on it, but I could gess. We cut the part's for the clamps and once in a while the 2 3/8" thick slabs would have an air pocket and all hell would break out from the stripper with multiple torch tips
I worked in a steel mill, the Youngstown Sheet & Tube company in Youngstown Ohio until 1980 when the mill went down, mostly because of cheaper foreign steel, but another big problem was the older, retired workforce that had been promised generous pensions, almost as much as what they'd been making while working, and with as many or more pensioners than active workers, the company couldn't afford to stay in business. Another problem was the new corporate management, who refused to invest in new machinery and facilities and let the mill run down. In a way, it's a good thing the mill went down, because it was intrinsically a highly dangerous place to work, although the pay was the best of any blue collar job around. Class 1 labor was about $32 an hour in today's money, up to class 24 what the blooming mill rollers got, about $55 an hour
Some additional info...the hot metal produced in a BF is usually called that or cast iron. Pig Iron is molten iron that is taken to a Pig casting mill where it solidifies into the small moulds / molds. These are called pigs due to the shape that is formed with an arched back. Once solidified and cooled these are esily transported for use in other processes where the molten iron cannot...Normally molten iron is transported to the steelmaking shops in a torpedo shaped vessel by rail and then transferred into the transfer ladle that is poured into the steelmaking furnace be it Open Hearth or Basic Oxygen Furnace (the most popular in recent decades) Australia once had a Prime Minister that was given the name Pig Iron Bob (Menzies) during WW2. I'll say no more but let you look up why that name was awarded.
I read, that Bethlehem Steel, supplied the steel, for the bridge that spans the NH/Maine state line (Piscatiqus River) of I-95, and was one of the last large steel projects that Bethlehem Steel worked on, back in 1976. Sad..
Bethlehem supplied the steel for the Majestic Icon Golden Gate Bridge. It was fabricated at the Pottstown Pa works, shipped to the west coast and erected by Bethlehem Erection Red Hats. Bethlehem also erected the first Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Md and many others across our nation. Bethlehem and US steel along with GM and Ford were the backbone of America!
I'm actually wearing 2 Bethlehem steel pins in me after I had a fractured arm and dislocated elbow when having surgery. I knew someone who worked at Bethlehem steel.
This was so cool to watch and has thought me stuff about what I call the steel stacks ik that my home town had a lot of history but this video taught me thing I didn't know and I live right down the street from this beautiful sight thank u 😊
A few things. They aren’t skiff tubs, but skip tubs, that ascend the skip hoist. Also the mill had blast furnaces A-G up until the early 1960’s. Otherwise, great job!
Yeah hey that was good footage of that place. Very old place. And 30,000 people working there. And it stretched for miles. Wow. I can imagine. Thanks for ur efforts. 😁👍
I worked at E. W. BLISS, rolling mills and related equipment for 30 years. As the demise of the mills was going on the story goes ours here in the USA were outdated. Mills in Japan and Germany were much newer thanks in part to the urban renewal projects provided by us bombing their mills into piles of scrap then help finance the new ones.
Everybody has an opinion mine is very similar to yours , I worked over 30 years in a steel mill (East Chicago Indiana) some of my coworkers went to Japan and saw first hand one their mills very clean and modern . I saw many departments closed luckily for me I managed to draw a pension.
@danielmota1095 Absolutely, our mills were 1930s whereas everything in Japan was 1950s. By the end of the war, 80% of the Japanese industry was flattened. The Japanese are very proud of their industry's and protect them. In this country, the bloodsuckers control our industries.
My uncle worked at u s steel in Gary Indiana. Got 13 weeks a year paid vacation. Imagine having 4 thousand employees and half of them got that much time off. Won't be in business long
--I worked for Bethlehem steel in the 60s in industrial engineering and was astounded that they did not use continuous cast methods along with the basic oxygen furnace at the lackawanna plant near buffalo NY. I worked there for a couple of years while in college then moved on. I think the primary reason for The failure was in not adopting the continuous casting methods used by competitors in Japan (at the time). This method was so much more efficien and eliminated reheating from Ingots to finished shapes such as steel beams. And moving ingots about on rail cars. It was a very interesting place to work and learn about such a basic industry and illustrates how so many of our industries stagnate now. By not innovating current example EVs it took Elon musk a few years to demonstrate the electric cars could be a main stream product and the established industries seem to be way behind the 8ball…
Great video from the walkway that was converted from the trestle you mention. I was disappointed that you did not mention what the site is now. Some of the buildings remain standing but are decaying partially due to promises made by the Sands organization which fell through. There has also been talk of a Bass Pro Shop and an indoor water park in the #2 Machine Shop which also fell through. I also noted that you did not attribute the Steel Worker's Union and over generous benefits to the demise of the Steel. No where else have I ever heard of a rank and file laborer get 13 weeks off with pay for longevity.
Overly generous benefits? Steel bosses made a few promises and most of us never qualified. Years ago they didn't make much steel in the wintertime. We were told we were going to get what school teachers had only in the winter time instead of he summer. Its a dangerous job one guy a month died while I was at Sparrows Point.
This mill like so many others in America was shuttered because manufacturers could buy steel cheaper from foreign vendors that had/have no regard for the ecosphere or the lives of the workers. Money... it was closed to save money.
Foundries, like other industries, can't often escape the EPA. It'd be interesting to see if it and anything associated with it's operations are considered a Superfund Site. I was working for one of the most sophisticated foundries this time last year. By June they'd began shutting down after decades of not missing a lick. Rumor is they'd ran out of space for their waste and was failing to contain what was already stored.
Thank you. My family lived near Bethlehem when I was little. My father worked in the nearby Firestone tire factory, and we moved to Virginia when Firestone opened a synthetic tire cord factory there. I have read some of the comments, but do not see anything about the expense and availability of the materials Bethlehem used to make the steel. For example, it is my understanding that there is little anthracite coal left to mine, and I do not know about the iron ore. Were Bethlehem Steel's supply costs competitive with those elsewhere? Did their competitor Japan even have local (in-Japan) supplies at all?
the US used to make everything now we don't make much of anything, I am all for free trade but FFS we need to make stuff here look what happened and is still happening with the pandemic, corporations were given huge tax breaks and are making record profits yet still not making things here that is what made the US a strong great country manufacturing
I worked at the Lackawanna Coke ovens plant for 15 years. I was there till the day it closed. That was the worst day of my life waking up and finding out I had no job.
The only thing left in Lackawanna that was part of Bethlehem steel the barmel with The walking beam furnace. Throughout my years as a bricklayer I specialized in refractory and worked in the walking beam furnace many times doing repairs. Republic steel owns it now and operates it.
Interesting clip and a compelling narrative. Two other reasons for Bethlehem Steel's failure are listed as the role of unions and forcing the corporates to give unaffordable benefits including pensions and lavish expenditure of top managers on their own entertainment/perks. Bethlehem is not the only city in the US that took the hit on this currency and interest rate change, Gary in Indiana (City of Michele Jackson) got even worse and currently is a city with high unemployment, high crime rates, and abounded buildings
You are wrong. The Asian steel companies were heavily subsidized by their governments, so they didn't have to make a profit. Our steel companies were totally ignored by our government. Why you haters refuse to understand this is beyond comprehension. And no, I am not repeating what I read or what somebody told me. I LIVED THOUGH IT!!!
@@michaelbenardo5695 That's complete horseshit. US bosses get whatever they want from government after all Wall street buys those politician's. They always talk about other countries being competitors as if they want workers in other countries to get higher wages. They want the lowest wages and the longest hours for their next investment.
I come from the UK and our steel industry went the same way. Japan, Germany & later on China designated their steel industries as "Strategic". This meant government subsidies in the form of cheap electricity etc. So the outcome was these countries could "dump" steel at low prices into the USA and UK and undercut the local steel suppliers. Once they had collapsed then they had the markets to themselves. I don't know whether our Governments are callous or just plain stupid. Those that were around at the time figured out what the game was, but no-one in power cared.
I was born and raised in Bethlehem. My father's family all worked for Bethlehem Steel, as did I for four summers between semesters in college. It was an experience I would not trade for anything. Your video brought back memories of my times at the plant, during which I worked throughout its entire span along the Lehigh River, from Hellertown to Fountain Hill. My father spent most of his career in the 12"&14" "hand mill," where he literally wrestled red hot ribbons of steel from one bank of rolls to another. He had hands of stone and grip strength like nobody else. The bankruptcy of the company was caused by a combination of factors; foreign competition (mostly Japan and Germany, which we ironically rebuilt after WW II), internal financial mismanagement and lack of vision, union avarice and employee apathy. My father worked there his entire adult life and told me to never entertain the thought that I could do likewise, since "this plant won't be here in twenty years." He could see the future, and lived to witness his prediction come true. The Bethlehem of my youth, with its exquisite Eastern European culture brought by the employees from their natal lands, is no longer, and this nation is the poorer for its demise.
So sad to see that happened
Would you consider the lack of modernizing the smelters a factor into why it couldn't compete with japanese and German steel? Or was labor?
I remember hearing the same you referenced that we helped rebuild Japan and Germany to use Electric Arc Furnace as supposed to blast furnaces.
I blame our government for selling out our American Dream, having a good stable job is where the Dream starts.
@@DurzoBlunts Interestingly enough, Germany is generally seen as a high labor cost country - and we lost our steel industry to international sources that can do it cheaper. Our exports are generally based not on cost, but on expertise, which is why Siemens recently improved its position in the US rail market, for example. Surprisingly, the opposite is happening with Tesla - but then, ICE car manufacturers worldwide seem to have been caught flat-footed with the switch to EVs.
It's a myth that the US rebuilt Japan and Germany. The Marshall Plan (50% loans) was mostly created to prevent Western Europe from turning communist and to keep the US running on a high production level. Its total value adjusted for inflation was $115 billion (2021) and Germany got 11% of that. You don't rebuilt a country as shot up and stripped of all working factories and all intellectual property with $12.5 billion. The Marshall Plan was nice but mostly created to serve US interests. Japan and Germany rebuilt Japan and Germany.
Great work!! My family owned a large steel fabrication plant in New York. We were a long time customer of Bethlehem. We used to take employees on yearly “field trips” to the plant which was always so impressive. Thanks for making this tribute to what was an amazing part of our country’s history.
Now what your fam into
Thanks, I am glad that you liked it.
No she'll design? I don't have time to watch your videos.
I worked in the Bethlehem plant around 1970. I will now set out my explanation of why BS failed.
The defined benefit pensions were unaffordably generous.
Most of the plant was built before 1930. The only significant post-1960 addition to the plant was the Basic Oxygen Furnace in 1967.
Injection molding and continuous casting were never implemented.
Continuous casting of beams from fresh liquid steel was simply not possible. This dramatically raised the energy cost of many BS products.
Finally, a steadily growing share of US steel production was from minimills recycling scrap. I submit that Nucor pulled the trigger on the American virgin steel industry.
This makes sense. I guess that new technology and methods was a bigger factor than I thought.
This is probably the best summation I've seen of it, especially the parts regarding continuous casting and the rise of the minimill.
I agree that Nucor was and is aggressive in using EAF and continuous casting producing better quality steel with less environmental impact, recycling steel, and producing most of steel needed in US. Lower labour costs, greenfield plant all lowered input costs.
I worked for USS in the 70's and 80's. Bethlehem was particularly prone to mini mills because their product mix leaned towards heavy steel, not light cold rolled. Their products were among the first to be taken over by the mini mill companies like Nucor. USS also made these products but was quicker to shed them in the 80's when the competition got tougher.
Bethlehem was top heavy.in management. Their corporate offices in Bethlehem were but in the shape of a plus sign to allow more prestigious corner offices, eight per floor.
For all the reputation of Homer Research, Bethlehem had a major not invented here problem in the 70's and 80's, even worse than USS. Homer's research seemed to be more focused on optimizing existing technology than adopting or developing new technology.
They stuck with old obsolete technology in their mills for far too long. Failure to adopt continuous casting was but one example. As Steelworker wages skyrocketed in the 70's and domestic and foreign competition were nipping at their heels they made very few changes to improve labor prodictivity.
@@lowercherty And now Nucor makes even heavy structurals, and open web steel joists, decking, etc.
I think you understate the roll that technology played in Bethlehem’s demise. The advent of the electric arc furnace in large numbers plus Bethlehem’s enormous cost structure meant that they just couldn’t compete. Their costs were too high. Their technology, their union contracts, their excessive management structure, golf courses, executive perks, etc. all contributed to their cost problems. In short it was a classic case of decades of mismanagement and not seeing the direction the industry was headed and getting ahead of it. It’s a classic case of the market doing what the market does.
Sounds like this steel works is analogous to the US.
Clay Christensen from HBS explains it in his disruption theory.
The U.S. steel producers filed several cases with the FTC and also successfully lobbied congress to add tariffs to important steel, claiming that the importers competed unfairly. Normally, you'd expect companies to use the "relief" period during which the tariffs are active to restructure their production facilities in order to increase their competitiveness. U.S. steel producers for the most part didn't do this, and eventually the tariffs ended, and claims of unfair trade were resolved in the importers' favor. The rise of using recycled steel as raw material for electric mills provided a much cheaper process for making steel that became common world-wide, but not at traditional U.S. steel mills. The refusal to change brought about their own demise.
All the competition from Inferior Chinesium steel as well as Japanese and German steel facilities are what finished it.
The root main cause of its demise was neoliberalism
I went to the plant about 8 years ago. Just standing there staring at the ruins it really starts to hit you. Had tears in my eyes
I hauled a lot of steel out of Bethlehem back in the 80s. I got to meet a lot of great people there and always enjoyed picking up there. Too bad what happened to that great company.
It is because of Saint Ronnie and Bill Clinton.
I worked alot right there
Closed because wide spread corruption
Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video, I am a carpenter of 23 years, and I own a Welding and Fabrication company. It was so refreshing to get facts in a short amount of time with wonderful visual representations of what you're describing. It was a no-nonsense look back in time, please keep up the videos, you are appreciated, and one of a kind...
I started with Bethlehem Steel right out of college in 1969 with a training program there in Pennsylvania teaching us about the complete process as well as the products and services of all the divisions. Mornings in lectures and afternoons to each operation. After weeks I went to the new Burns Harbor plant where I worked in the 160 in plate mill. At that time they were unloading South Korean hot roll coils across the small harbor destined for the auto industry parts manufacturers. I saw then that American steel was doomed.
In the 1980’s I worked in the Aluminum extrusion business. Our plant manager told us that the Chinese were going to get into the extrusion business and there was nothing we could do about it. We can’t compete with them, he said and so the way our company was going to make money was by teaching them how to do it. I said I thought he should ask the steel industry if they thought that was a good idea. Remember people, Made in the U.S.A.
Those vile mongoloids.
I spent 50 years operating a steel fabrication and erection company in NJ. Bethlehem Steel was our major supplier until they closed down operations. We would buy about 2,000 tons per year. They delivered quality products on time with all required markings and certifications. When they stopped producing steel our industry began relying on service centers for our materials. Buy American almost disappeared overnight.
Thanks and we'll done. I was at Lehigh University in the late 1960s and went on a tour of the plant when it was in operation. They were quite proud of the development of steel that would self protect with a layer of rust, that steel was used for the New Street Bridge in Bethlehem linking south Bethlehem to downtown. Back then if you told people the plant would be closed in 25 years I think most would disbelieve you.
I believe that product was called Maori steel. I think it never took off as a product because of appearance.
Cor Ten steel and it is still being produced.
@@dolphincliffs8864 corten is on all of the new steel bridges being built in my area the last 10-15 years. No maintenance needed (painting)
@@elithepitbulldog2209 Well geez! Thank you Captain Late to the Party!
I knew about Cor Ten steel since the 70's. NCR in Peachtree City Ga has Cor Ten cladding.
Numerous light poles on the interstate highways are Cor Ten.
Preaching to the choir son.
What would Cor Ten rebar do? Is it passive enough once aged to remain stable in concrete?
I had a buddy that was an overhead Crain operator he said he would go into work in the morning and sit in the cab of his Crain smoking drinking coffee and reading the newspaper sometimes for hours before the folks on the floor needed him to move something he said there was alot of nothing getting done but that was his point of view he passed away this past year I miss him he was a good friend
Sounds like the government ran that part of the operation! One man working, ten watching.
One correction: Steel beams and other structural steel were not cast material and are not produced in the foundry. They were rolled from ingots or blooms in various mills in the plant including the 42", 48", Combo Mill and the 12"&14" Mill. Other products were rolled on the 35", 18", 22" and the 3-9"/3-12" Hand Mills. The 35" and 18" Mills produced blooms and the 22" Mill produced round stock used to make drill collars.
Mr. Nunnemacher! In your opinion is there a way to bring this back and make it operational?
Never happen. EPA govt regs and lots of $$$$$$$$.plus no one wants it in their backyard. 🙄🙄. Sad what our country has turned into. Rely on everyone else instead of ourselves.
@@RM..... It’s really a slap in the face when you have to use foreign made materials to build in this country. I wonder if the same politicians that made it possible for the EPA regulations benefited from the shutdown. I was born at the wrong time and being a trucker it hurts me physically to see the whole country in ruins. It really does.
Mr Torres, this plant and most of the others in the US are massively out of date and would need to be rebuilt from scratch with the latest modern equipment so with out massive investment no.
@@charlescann531 If we have the money to bail out banks why doesn’t our govt. invest in its own country! Seems like a no brainer to me but I’m just a small grain of sand in a mile Long Beach.
Very good video. If anyone was interested, the cylinders at 4:50 are called stoves. They are on a cycle of heating using an internal burner, then on a blast cycle. Only one of the 3 is on blast at a time. Very old ones are manually changed over. All operating stoves around the world now are automatic.
Bethlehem Steel had a slow decline when they did not get the WTC steel contract in the 1960s; it was cheaper to bring finished steel from Japan. Management did not take this threat seriously. The 25 years and out policy was not financially backed with cash. They would do that later was the policy of management at that time, it was thought that future sales would cover that financial short fall.
The town did a nice job preserving the “steel stacks” as are they are nestled among a casino/hotel, local theatre, and PBS TV station. I attended a company meeting at the theatre in 2015 and was surprised to find a board with former steel company employees, including my father’s name, which was part of fundraiser that me and my siblings had donated to many years earlier. Brought tears to my eyes.
I spent a summer during my college years working in an area of the plant then called the "cinder dump" checking for outside railcars so the company would not have to pay demurrage daily charges to the Lehigh Valley railroad. My parents lived in Bethlehem (and Allentown at the end) starting in 1946 until their passing. Great memories. Thanks for the up-close view today.
I delivered truckloads of stone to the old steel mills in around 2005 to 2007. I have no idea what the used the stone for, but the place is extraordinary. Driving in, you can see how this dominated the landscape. You get a sense of how powerful American industry was. To bring America to a level to compete with another entire continent, or even on a world level. Besides the mill, there's also fascinating homes and old storefronts built in the area. Videos like these don't do justice to the ghosts you feel when you enter a place like this. It just feels like a glimpse of an America we will never see again, and that's a damn shame.
Was it limestone or calcite? These minerals are used to reduce impurities in the steel.
@@theroadbackhome2022 it was just quarried stone. Maybe they were building a roadway into something or adding to a parking lot somewhere, but our company sent maybe 10 trucks a day, 1 or 2 days a week for almost 2 years.
I work in Bethlehem today, and most of us who do consider the remaining structures from the mill to be landmarks. If you have ever visited at night, you've seen the towers of the blast furnaces lit in bright colors, and the space near them has been used for Musikfest for many years, with the furnace towers as a backdrop for excellent music. I think a lot of us hope that those furnaces will be preserved in some fashion as a part of the museum, or just as local landmarks.
Put your money where you're mouth is. Millions will be wasted
No doubt, the comment about how depressing it looks today really missed the mark
@@pirmigrin Wall street sucked it dry and then abandoned them for bigger profits elsewhere.
I don’t mean to nitpick but Bethlehem Steel is directly East of Allentown and probably only 5 miles away. The Lehigh Valley is an underrated place. I know people from there will say “it’s not what it used to be” and people from the outside looking in won’t know what it is (which I hope changes) or they will hate on it especially within pennsylvania, but I’ve lived in 6 states and 3 countries and I always loved the Lehigh valley. Allentown is the 3rd largest city in PA behind Philly and Pittsburgh and the Lehigh Valley has almost a million people and 3 beautiful cities all in a line. If you’re ever in the area, go check out historic Bethlehem (especially in winter), the waterfront in Easton, and Cedar Beach or 7th and Hamilton in Allentown. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have and I wish that you have pride in where you’re from the way Allentonians should and sadly generally don’t.
Two major factors, management didn't fully realize the coming challenges, and labor didn't either... both gave away the farm.
Wall Street sucked it dry and then just abandoned the workers like in so many other communities. Investment went to lower wage areas.
It was some place when it was up and running.
I used to run fuel oil in there, and other days take coal tar emulsion outta there.
I liked being there when it was getting dark and they would have a rail car full of molten slag glowing and sparks shooting out of hopper sitting on a siding.
Was a neat plant... shame it is gone...
I live in Bethlehem and find the history of Bethlehem steel fascinating and political. I wasn't alive when the company was running so its interesting to hear and learn everyone's perspective. The workers even in a union never had the last say so I never fully agree on unions and pensions were the ultimate downfall of the company. The profit margins of this company were insane. The pensions were compensated by raising prices and because the company didn't modernize they couldn't raise prices. To see the old steel mill as a casino is symbolic to life in America rn, makes you wonder if we all being left to rust.
I'm old enough to remember when the steel unions had nationwide strikes every 5 years. But in 1970 during the latest strike some customers reluctantly tried buying Japanese steel. They were surprised the quality was as good or better than American made steel. And it was cheaper. So even after the strike was settled more and more customers started buying steel from Japan. At that time China was not even in the picture yet.
Not sure where you got your information. Profits were no doubt heavy during the war years and even in the 1950's-60's, but "insane" profits were definitely not being made during the last 25 years of operations at the Bethlehem Plant. If you factor in the unfunded pension obligation, it's likely we were losing money on every ton shipped out the door. You are definitely incorrect if you believe pensions weren't a big factor in the downfall of the company. Bethlehem's pension was underfunded by $2 Billion (with a "B"). This affected its stock price and its ability to borrow the capital needed to modernize. When I left the company in 1997 we had about 75,000 employees on pension, but only about 14,000 active employees nationwide.... not a good formula for any business.
@@dfirth224
Bethlehem, National steel, Great Lakes and several other steel companies disappeared due to the congressional paranoia of unions. Both republican and democratic parties targeted the Teamsters, USW (Steel Workers) and to a lesser degree UAW (NAFTA). Congress didn't appreciate so much power in hands other than government.
The steel industry was targeted with heavy regulation that strangulated the production of steel. Congress was on a roll and went totally power mad. Trucking companies that survived the Great Depression went belly up under deregulation (a serious misnomer) Teamsters we're put out of jobs, steel companies were idled, auto companies outsourced manufacturing offshore (now manufacturing is in China a communist slave state under NAFTA)
This is the legacy of the democratic presidency of Jimmy Carter and the globalists, followed by other globalists like G H W Bush, Clinton, J W Bush, Obama and now Biden.
The democrats are pro labor yes, just not 🚫 pro union.
@dfirth224 lol, ah no!
Bethlehem, National steel, Great Lakes and several other steel companies disappeared due to the congressional paranoia of unions. Both republican and democratic parties targeted the Teamsters, USW (Steel Workers) and to a lesser degree UAW (NAFTA). Congress didn't appreciate so much power in hands other than government.
The steel industry was targeted with heavy regulation that strangulated the production of steel. Congress was on a roll and went totally power mad. Trucking companies that survived the Great Depression went belly up under deregulation (a serious misnomer) Teamsters we're put out of jobs, steel companies were idled, auto companies outsourced manufacturing offshore (now manufacturing is in China a communist slave state under NAFTA)
This is the legacy of the democratic presidency of Jimmy Carter and the globalists, followed by other globalists like G H W Bush, Clinton, J W Bush, Obama and now Biden.
The democrats are pro labor yes, just not 🚫 pro union.
@@rockeerockey6941 The Wall street gamblers like things the way they are. They are always crying about how the government is costing them money when they love a bailout and government contract. The Wall street bosses like that way. They like having us being a net importer because its good for capital formation. They also opened all these low wage mini mills. Their idea of being pro labor is having you work the longest hours for the lowest pay. You can't trust either party because they are both controlled by the wall street gamblers.
Our family was from Johnstown Pa just about everyone worked at Bethlehem Steel until it closed. That was a disaster even today the city is suffering.
The steel plant was the most important industry in Eastern PA and it is sad to see the effect its closure has had on the region.
EAF technology wasn't fully developed and used widespread in steel mills until the late 60's and 70's, giving rise to minimills. The rebuilding of German and Japanese mills involved blast furnaces and conventional integrated steelmaking. Bethlehem Steel was so insular and conservative that it was the last integrated producer to embrace BOF technology, clinging to open hearth furnaces to convert iron to steel long after most of her competitors built BOF's. My dad worked in purchasing at their main office in Bethlehem from 1951 to 1968, and often lamented at Beth Steel's reluctance to embrace new technology. They hired enginheers directly from Lehigh University, which they supported, and only promoted from within, people who were indoctrinated in how they do business, discouraging innovations not developed by their own Homer Laboratory. My family worked at Bethlehem 3 generations, starting in 1901 with my great grandfather. When it closed it felt like the death of a family member, but no funeral to attend.
The video neglected to discuss the nationwide 116 day strike of workers at all steel mills in the country in 1959. The lack of available steel forced customers to buy imported steel to keep their businesses solvent. That greatly increased the market share of imported steel from that time forward, and by the 1970's the oversupply of steel in the US market and worldwide slashed profits of US producers. Also, the environmental awareness starting in 1969 with Each Day led to the EPA and through the 1970's US mills had to spend most of their capital on retrofitting with pollution control equipment instead of replacing older obsolete production equipment with new, more efficient equipment. The collapse and shrinkage of steel production in the 70's and beyond had many contributing causes, including government, mismanagement, labor, consumer, banking and global economics.
This makes sense. It is interesting how the largest companies are always the slowest to adapt to new technology. The same thing happened to Baldwin and Penn Central.
I work at the old Cornwall Quarry. It is called PRL inc now. I love 15 minutes away in Lebanon City. The whole city was build around our Bethlehem steel plant. The railroad cuts the town in half, with all the old plant building lining the railroad. This video was pretty cool, thanks for sharing.
As a former steel worker at Laclede Steel at Fairless Works, it's a shame 146 years of progress and adapting to the times and then to out the way it did. Makes my heart ache.
Great video and very informative. Thanks so much for taking the time to make it!!
In 1981 I had worked with a guy that came to Laplace, to work at Bayou Steel, a mini-mill that was new and just brought on line. The guys name was Michael Gay, he was laid-off at Bethlehem and moved his family down to Louisiana. Mike has passed on now and I can say, He was a damn good man.
The production quality of this video is fantastic, keep up the great work.
Thanks, I am glad that you liked it.
Great job!. I'm building an abandoned steel mill for a game and your video gave me some very good views for my models. That's my hobby, but I service wide format printers for a living. I live in Chicago, so I used to service Bethlehem steel, US steel, Midwest steel, and LTV steel, all around Gary Indiana from June of 1984 until they all one by one closed up in the 90's. It's so sad to see all that impressive industry and capitol investment just abandoned and all the workers cut loose. As you mention, they built this country and helped us win allot of wars. Best regards to you!
I am glad that the video was useful. I agree that it is sad to see all of the effort that they put into building the place put to waste. The worst part for me is seeing and entire community that was centered around the steel plant effectively die off.
All those mills are still running. US Steel South works in Chicago closed. Inland, LTV, and Bethlehem are now Cleveland Cliffs. Midwest Steel is now a part of US Steel Gary Works.
Thank you for a great video !! I worked for B S the summer of 1965 as a summer employee. I made money for my college tuition. The work provided an education as good as I received at college !!
I grew up in Bethlehem and when I was a kid those blast furnaces used to scare the crap out of me
Well done, very good information. We were just walking the Bethlehem steel mill last week, and found all your information is very informative. Thank you for making this video.
Thanks, I am glad that you liked it.
I’ve been there and wanted to know more about its history. Thank you for this video.
So sad. Need to bring steel and aluminum making back to the USA for national security as one of many reasons. Bethlehem should be a start.
For the most part, GREED is why we have lost many steel mills ! The greed of a hell of alot at top is unmatched ! 😢
There was definitely a lot of greed and incompetence
try the fair trade act. cheap steel from Japan, Korea and other Asian areas
@Trepang 412 my sheetmetal guy is from the steel. Guy is the best sheetmetal guy around. He has a vast knowledge from working at thr steel
Yeah and cheap is whet you get ! When I worked in the steel mill, we bought 6 by 6 billets from China one time that steal had scrap metal in them ! Those was NOT worth a shit! Get what you pay for ! 😂
@@timothyroatenberry1274 sheetmetal Made in the USA 24 gauge and 26 gauge are going for almost 65 a sheet for 26 gauge at some supply houses
It's really truly sad that Bethlehem steel had to close.It's closure clearly hurt the economy of allentown which was clearly the inspiration of the billy joel song Allentown,a sad song that every time I hear it, it has me almost in tears.My heart goes out to all the 30,000 people that worked there and lost there jobs when this industrial giant closed and went bankrupt,so truly,heart breakingly sad.John M Guinto
It is definitely sad to think of all the people who had their lives turned upside down when this plant closed. The workers did everything they could to keep that place running and it really was a tough luck situation for them.
Thanks for sharing, I was loosely familiar with the US production from a historical perspective so it's cool to learn about the actual facilities.
It's only a few miles EAST of Allentown. It happens to be in Bethlehem.
Funny that he kept mentioning allentown as if it's a landmark.
I watched a documentary on the local PBS channel here in Buffalo and it said our Lackawanna plant employed 25,000 workers at one point. Some of the older gus who were interviewed said alot of the problem was also that the customers they once had became their competition. These countries started producing steel.
In the 70s I worked in w machine shop where we machined repairs on the rollers and bearing boxes for Bethlehem steel .
The mill in Bethlehem, PA didn't die, it moved. The structural steel it produced is now produced at Gerdau Petersburg. The forge shop is still running as Lehigh Heavy Forge.
The plant was obsolete. The compressors shown should have been replaced in the 1970's or 1980's. They dumped ore from the pit right into the furnace. Other mills had ovens that used waste heat captured from the furnace to preheat the ore.
Also, if you look at films of this plant in the 1970's, the steel was moved about the grounds several times during rolling. By rail, which required a locomotive and rail cars. After each move, the steel had to reheated in an oven. This added extra costs that other mills didn't have.
There was a big Bethlehem steel over here at the Port of Indiana right off of lake Michigan that all closed at the same time has inland steel.. they ended up selling to arcelormittal bought all of Bethlehem in inland and then they sold and now it's Cleveland cliffs they own both of the Mills and they are only running at like 30 to 40% capacity.. United States steel is doing really good over here in Gary still.. during the 80s all the steel mills that stretch over 25 miles from east Chicago to the port of indiana we're running great and now a couple of them have closed or sold out but they are still making steel pretty good over here in indiana.. there was several big steelmakers over here like LTV Bethlehem inland Midwest Republic Bethlehem uss.. now it's mostly Cleveland cliffs and the United States steel and there are still several other steel processing plants over here doing ok
It is good to see that we were able to save some of our steel industry and that what remains of it is doing well.
@@theroadbackhome2022 yes it's still cranking over here.. us steel is doing great over here.. Cleveland cliffs is doing good too.. Cleveland cliffs has an eaf and the largest blast furnace in north America.. Then BP refinery is in the mix.. heavy industrial area that stretches from south Chicago through whiting, through east Chicago, through Hammond and wraps around..
If I ever visit Indiana I will make it a point to visit them. I would love to see what one of these plants looks like when it is still in operation.
I remember my dad went there he worked in a steel stamping Co his whole life he said it was so sad to see it sitting idle .
I grew up in Bethlehem and have heard the theory that unaffordable union pensions are reason the mill closed, however I believe that explanation is more a product of the political leanings of the person explaining it to me than the reality of the situation. Also, the office building (called Martin tower) was demolished a couple years ago and there is also a center for the arts next to the old mill and museum where we host performers for Musikfest every August.
Musikfest is what genre? I went to a few of the NEARfests @ Zoellner; good times. It moved to Trenton, NJ for two years; larger auditorium but rental rates rose & it returned to Zoellner.
Now I just enjoy classical..
The haters refuse to acknowledge the fact that Asian steel companies destroyed our steel industry be heavily subsidizing their exports to this country, and our government refused to do anything about it, instead telling the public that "the union did it".
Going off the gold standard actually decreased the value of the US dollar, which made it cheaper for other countries to purchase American exports. If anything, going off the gold standard and the subsequent inflation would have actually made the mill more competitive.
You are probably right about the value of the dollar. The real problem was the difference in labor costs which was dictated by the cost of living of the workers.
Well they used to do something there and now they don’t ..so my question to anyone reading this is where do they do it at now? Where are the big furnaces heating up at today ? Not in Pennsylvania and not much going on in Gary Indiana anymore or in any surrounding Midwest state? Do I give you an accurate picture or do I exaggerate? There are many to blame (and we all know that) but the more you know about matters such as this ..the more we can educate ourselves the stronger we can be in the defense of not letting a lot of these things happen to us again ( all of this has happened in my lifetime …Basically the last 50 years ) So where are they doing all of this ?…(That used to be done here) and don’t forget that the transportation was assisted by the proximity of the great lakes ..for it all kind of worked hand in hand for all of us here in The good old USA
@@jeffkujawa803 I see a lot of steel marked "made in Canada" I am sure lots is made in China also
@@jeffkujawa803 The US Still makes about 100 million tons of steel a year, same as 1976. The difference is that back.then 90%.was made in blast furnace steel mills like Bethlehem. The rest was made by melting scrap in electric arc furnaces, aka mini mills, scattered around the country.
Now only about 20% of the steel is made in blast furnace plants, the rest by melting scrap in much larger mini mills.
Whole large steel companies, like Nucor and Steel Dynamics to name two, have grown mostly from scratch since 1976.
Add 20 to 30 million tons of imported steel a year and God knows how much imported as finished Toyotas and appliances
@@jeffkujawa803 We still make about 100 million tons of steel a year in the USA, same as 1976.
Bzck then 10 million tons a year was made by melting scrap at so called mini mills with electric arc furnaces. The rest was made from iron ore at places like Bethlehem.
Now about 80 million tons a year is made by melting scrap in mini mills that aren't so mini anymore
Just like the numerous Alcoa and Kaiser aluminum smelters we had in WA, all shutdown and some were demolished some are still intact.
Thank Saint Ronnie for that.
Aluminum smelting is about 1/3 energy cost ( electric ) we shipped the smelting to China and Russia, no EPA there !
Great video - lots of fascinating details. A correction on a minor point. At the outset you state that the plant was founded in 1857, on the heels of the Civil War. The Civil war began in 1861 and ended in 1865. Better description: “The plant was built in 1857, at the threshold of the Civil War.”
I currently work at a steel mill in Burns harbor Indiana, and the video of the mill you were showing looks to be in about as good of shape as the one I'm at that is still running and producing iron, I am on the blast furnace and it is old and deteriorating year after year, just wonder how many years of iron production it has left before it finally crashes..
The sad part is that many US companies just let their plants decay until they can no longer operate effectively, then relocate to some place that is cheaper.
@@theroadbackhome2022 And our government pays them to relocate, as long as they relocate outside of this country. Courtesy of Saint Ronnie.
"Ronnie" presided over the collapse of the American steel industry. he was also a big time Union buster.
@@danielthoman7324 Eh, unions do a lot to bust themselves.
@@michaelbenardo5695 try the muslim messiah and pedophile clinton.
So many mighty great lakes freighters worked for the Bethlehem Steel Company.
Yes, and I imagine many of those freighters were built with steel from BS and I think BS even owned a couple of shipyards.
There's a video that was posted on RUclips 15 years ago that was filmed at Bethlehem in 1994 titled "Dumping slag at Bethlehem", that seems to be in people's recommendations recently but I remember watching it when I was a kid. If it wasn't for the algorithm I never would have know this place failed.
It failed due to piss poor management focusing more on building golf courses than updating their plants.
Not really. It failed because of the Asians and our government's collusion with them.
funny how this popped up in my suggestion, I visited recently and fell in love with the place.
Great video with beautiful shots. Learning a little bit of history and primary used by me to weather my Walthers blast furnace for my n-scale model steel industry railroad. Thanks
Great video.
our steelworks at redcar,northeast uk closed down, last week the blast furnace was blown up/demolished. its on you tube.
production was 10,000 tons per day.
this month the gas stoves will be demolished too.
we have very little heavy industry now. Unions,cheap foreign imports,and just badly run all round.
My grandfather worked in the Pittsburgh Steel Works from 1913 to 1923
I can tell you what didn't help BHS
Back in the mid 70ds I got out of highschool and my uncle got me a job at crest steel in Wilmington CA , Thay were adding more shifts to cut parts for the Alaskan pipeline and on TV when they were selling the idea of a pipeline and it was going to give BHS a (quote shot in the arm) , one of the first things that I was instructed to do is take a 7 inch disk grinder and grinder off the white stamp on the sheets of steel that reads made in Korea and a huge series of numbers these emblems were about 20 inches wide and a foot tall,. All of the steel was certified and a visual inspection was done every few weeks and when that black Lincoln continental showed up and the miinala folder was passed through the window I always wondered what was on it, but I could gess. We cut the part's for the clamps and once in a while the 2 3/8" thick slabs would have an air pocket and all hell would break out from the stripper with multiple torch tips
I worked in a steel mill, the Youngstown Sheet & Tube company in Youngstown Ohio until 1980 when the mill went down, mostly because of cheaper foreign steel, but another big problem was the older, retired workforce that had been promised generous pensions, almost as much as what they'd been making while working, and with as many or more pensioners than active workers, the company couldn't afford to stay in business. Another problem was the new corporate management, who refused to invest in new machinery and facilities and let the mill run down. In a way, it's a good thing the mill went down, because it was intrinsically a highly dangerous place to work, although the pay was the best of any blue collar job around. Class 1 labor was about $32 an hour in today's money, up to class 24 what the blooming mill rollers got, about $55 an hour
Some additional info...the hot metal produced in a BF is usually called that or cast iron. Pig Iron is molten iron that is taken to a Pig casting mill where it solidifies into the small moulds / molds. These are called pigs due to the shape that is formed with an arched back. Once solidified and cooled these are esily transported for use in other processes where the molten iron cannot...Normally molten iron is transported to the steelmaking shops in a torpedo shaped vessel by rail and then transferred into the transfer ladle that is poured into the steelmaking furnace be it Open Hearth or Basic Oxygen Furnace (the most popular in recent decades)
Australia once had a Prime Minister that was given the name Pig Iron Bob (Menzies) during WW2. I'll say no more but let you look up why that name was awarded.
Amazing history of development and success I’ve heard some say the war would’ve been lost it’s not for Bethlehem Steel ❤
I read, that Bethlehem Steel, supplied the steel, for the bridge that spans the NH/Maine state line (Piscatiqus River) of I-95, and was one of the last large steel projects that Bethlehem Steel worked on, back in 1976. Sad..
Bethlehem supplied the steel for the Majestic Icon Golden Gate Bridge. It was fabricated at the Pottstown Pa works, shipped to the west coast and erected by Bethlehem Erection Red Hats. Bethlehem also erected the first Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Md and many others across our nation. Bethlehem and US steel along with GM and Ford were the backbone of America!
Great video, thank you for preserving the history of this great enterprise!!!
Loved video. So sad this has happened in UK. Our blast furnace on Teesside is now being demolished ☹️
Sad. It is because you had a female version of Saint Ronnie during the 80s, and like our version, she waged war on the Working Class.
@@michaelbenardo5695 who’s saint ronnie? not to show off my age but i’m assuming pretty much everyone here is calling ronald reagan saint ronnie
I was a subcontractor at the Sparrows Point plant. The reason that plant is tore down is the employees ,they drove the company to ruins.
I was one of the first employees at this facility.
We all knew it would end some day.
I'm actually wearing 2 Bethlehem steel pins in me after I had a fractured arm and dislocated elbow when having surgery. I knew someone who worked at Bethlehem steel.
This was so cool to watch and has thought me stuff about what I call the steel stacks ik that my home town had a lot of history but this video taught me thing I didn't know and I live right down the street from this beautiful sight thank u 😊
Labor cost played a big part in the demise of Bethlehem steel.
Nice video! I appreciate the effort you put into it. Thanks!
Thanks, I am glad you like it.
A few things. They aren’t skiff tubs, but skip tubs, that ascend the skip hoist. Also the mill had blast furnaces A-G up until the early 1960’s.
Otherwise, great job!
Thanks for the feedback, I tried to research things as best I could but it was probably inevitable that I would make a few mistakes.
Yeah hey that was good footage of that place. Very old place. And 30,000 people working there. And it stretched for miles. Wow. I can imagine. Thanks for ur efforts.
😁👍
Greatings from Longwy 🇲🇫
Greetings.
I worked at court industry in Ontario Canada we used to chrome plate the rolls for Bethlehem steel in the late 80’s
Interesting to hear that they provided steel for Canada as well as the US.
I worked at E. W. BLISS, rolling mills and related equipment for 30 years. As the demise of the mills was going on the story goes ours here in the USA were outdated. Mills in Japan and Germany were much newer thanks in part to the urban renewal projects provided by us bombing their mills into piles of scrap then help finance the new ones.
Everybody has an opinion mine is very similar to yours , I worked over 30 years in a steel mill (East Chicago Indiana) some of my coworkers went to Japan and saw first hand one their mills very clean and modern . I saw many departments closed luckily for me I managed to draw a pension.
@danielmota1095 Absolutely, our mills were 1930s whereas everything in Japan was 1950s. By the end of the war, 80% of the Japanese industry was flattened. The Japanese are very proud of their industry's and protect them. In this country, the bloodsuckers control our industries.
My uncle worked at u s steel in Gary Indiana. Got 13 weeks a year paid vacation. Imagine having 4 thousand employees and half of them got that much time off. Won't be in business long
--I worked for Bethlehem steel in the 60s in industrial engineering and was astounded that they did not use continuous cast methods along with the basic oxygen furnace at the lackawanna plant near buffalo NY. I worked there for a couple of years while in college then moved on. I think the primary reason for The failure was in not adopting the continuous casting methods used by competitors in Japan (at the time). This method was so much more efficien and eliminated reheating from Ingots to finished shapes such as steel beams. And moving ingots about on rail cars. It was a very interesting place to work and learn about such a basic industry and illustrates how so many of our industries stagnate now. By not innovating current example EVs it took Elon musk a few years to demonstrate the electric cars could be a main stream product and the established industries seem to be way behind the 8ball…
Great video from the walkway that was converted from the trestle you mention. I was disappointed that you did not mention what the site is now. Some of the buildings remain standing but are decaying partially due to promises made by the Sands organization which fell through. There has also been talk of a Bass Pro Shop and an indoor water park in the #2 Machine Shop which also fell through. I also noted that you did not attribute the Steel Worker's Union and over generous benefits to the demise of the Steel. No where else have I ever heard of a rank and file laborer get 13 weeks off with pay for longevity.
Overly generous benefits? Steel bosses made a few promises and most of us never qualified. Years ago they didn't make much steel in the wintertime. We were told we were going to get what school teachers had only in the winter time instead of he summer. Its a dangerous job one guy a month died while I was at Sparrows Point.
This mill like so many others in America was shuttered because manufacturers could buy steel cheaper from foreign vendors that had/have no regard for the ecosphere or the lives of the workers. Money... it was closed to save money.
I'm old enough to remember when this was considered such a solid company you could put in your 401k and just forget about.
I have a WWII halftrack. The heavy angle iron frame above the windshield is stamped Bethlehem Steel.
My father got his start in the steel industry at the Bethlehem plant.
Knows Eregli Iron and Steel factories in Turkey
Only one word destroyed Bethlehem steel UNION
Thanks for this video- I cry when I walk the Steel Stacks - god bless those who worked at the steel and built our great country!
Foundries, like other industries, can't often escape the EPA. It'd be interesting to see if it and anything associated with it's operations are considered a Superfund Site. I was working for one of the most sophisticated foundries this time last year. By June they'd began shutting down after decades of not missing a lick. Rumor is they'd ran out of space for their waste and was failing to contain what was already stored.
Come see the Bethlehem Steel Mill and stop by the Wind Creek Casino which was built from part of the Bethlehem Steel Mill.
Why do these small channels always have the best content
I am glad you liked it.
Thank you. My family lived near Bethlehem when I was little. My father worked in the nearby Firestone tire factory, and we moved to Virginia when Firestone opened a synthetic tire cord factory there. I have read some of the comments, but do not see anything about the expense and availability of the materials Bethlehem used to make the steel. For example, it is my understanding that there is little anthracite coal left to mine, and I do not know about the iron ore. Were Bethlehem Steel's supply costs competitive with those elsewhere? Did their competitor Japan even have local (in-Japan) supplies at all?
My great grandfather ran the crane that still stands there today where the casino sign is.
My first job 3 days after graduation of high school was at Bethlehem steel plant in Baltimore. 1977
the US used to make everything now we don't make much of anything, I am all for free trade but FFS we need to make stuff here look what happened and is still happening with the pandemic, corporations were given huge tax breaks and are making record profits yet still not making things here that is what made the US a strong great country manufacturing
My dad had an apartment in the area in one of the abandoned warehouses turning into an apartment building.
I worked at the Lackawanna Coke ovens plant for 15 years. I was there till the day it closed. That was the worst day of my life waking up and finding out I had no job.
Was this the plant in Buffalo? It really is shocking to see the effect Bethlehem Steel's closing had on the entire north-east.
Yes in buffalo.
The only thing left in Lackawanna that was part of Bethlehem steel the barmel with The walking beam furnace. Throughout my years as a bricklayer I specialized in refractory and worked in the walking beam furnace many times doing repairs. Republic steel owns it now and operates it.
What was left of the galvanizing Mill had a huge fire years ago and burnt that building to the ground
They allowed cheep foreign steel to be imported
In 90s Ford Motor Co use this steel for all suspension parts on theirs models (front & rear springs, suspensions bars).
Interesting clip and a compelling narrative.
Two other reasons for Bethlehem Steel's failure are listed as the role of unions and forcing the corporates to give unaffordable benefits including pensions and lavish expenditure of top managers on their own entertainment/perks.
Bethlehem is not the only city in the US that took the hit on this currency and interest rate change, Gary in Indiana (City of Michele Jackson) got even worse and currently is a city with high unemployment, high crime rates, and abounded buildings
Union BS again!! If you had CIVICS in school you would know the truth!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s like a domino effect and you are very correct about Gary Indiana …much of it is a ghost town
You are wrong. The Asian steel companies were heavily subsidized by their governments, so they didn't have to make a profit. Our steel companies were totally ignored by our government. Why you haters refuse to understand this is beyond comprehension. And no, I am not repeating what I read or what somebody told me. I LIVED THOUGH IT!!!
@@michaelbenardo5695 That's complete horseshit. US bosses get whatever they want from government after all Wall street buys those politician's. They always talk about other countries being competitors as if they want workers in other countries to get higher wages. They want the lowest wages and the longest hours for their next investment.
I come from the UK and our steel industry went the same way. Japan, Germany & later on China designated their steel industries as "Strategic". This meant government subsidies in the form of cheap electricity etc. So the outcome was these countries could "dump" steel at low prices into the USA and UK and undercut the local steel suppliers. Once they had collapsed then they had the markets to themselves. I don't know whether our Governments are callous or just plain stupid. Those that were around at the time figured out what the game was, but no-one in power cared.
My father and grandfather and I worked at Beth steel my name is William marable and my cousin was the president of union Ed bartee
There was also a Bethlehem steel plant in sparows point md. Which has since been torn down.