Almost Gone (photographs of Bethlehem Steel)

In my opinion, Bethlehem Steel's Lehigh plant was probably the most dramatic industrial abandonment in the United States. It was a massive, complex, and desolate relic of America's great, lost industrial age. I first visited and photographed Bethlehem Steel on January 31st, 2003. By sheer coincidence, at midnight that night, Bethlehem Steel Corporation was dissolved. So I am quite likely the last person to have photographed this magnificent location while it was still under the dominion of Bethlehem Steel.

This body of work - only partially represented here - was my first attempt at a serious photography exhibit. Some pieces here have gone on to win awards, and it still remains my favorite photographic body of work. Shortly after completing it I teamed up with a small production company and we made a short film using my photographs and some video I had taken. Check it out.

Bethlehem Steel

Bethlehem's five blast furnaces are considered the most dramatic remnant of bethlehem steel. The people of Bethlehem are so enamored of them they have adopted them as the town's unofficial logo.

Medium gauge and narrow gauge tracks share the middle rail where iron ore and limestone cars would dump their cargo through the slotted train tracks and into hoppers below. The mixture would then be conveyed to the top of the 17 story blast furnace and deposited within.

David Thomas built Bethlehem's first blast furnace in 1840. the oldest parts of Bethlehem's remaining blast furnaces date back to 1903. The oldest known blast furnaces in the west were built in sweden around 1150 and, though the technology has advanced, the basic principles of iron smelting remain the same.

The interior of the blast furnace was a tangled labyrinth the likes of which I have never seen. What kind of twisted genious created the blueprint for this chaos of pipes, stacks, furnaces, train tracks and stairwells? it was like wandering through a grand canyon of steel.

The large silos are blast ovens or "stoves". they fed heated air into the blast furnaces and were powered by a combination of fresh gas (mostly carbon monoxide) and recycled 'dirty' gas created by chemical reactions in the blast furnace. 'Waste gas' would be emitted from the stacks.

Though the rumble of steelmaking has been silenced here, a gust of wind would send this whole place into a fit of moaning, creaking and clattering. A strong enough gust made the place sound like a demonic pipe organ.

A former steelworker recognized this place as control room b - the site of a terrible furnace explosion in the 1980s. Apparently, in an effort to stay competitive, management reduced the maintenance budget at the aging plant - a decision that resulted in the tragic event that transpired at this location.

Here we see blast furnace B, several blast ovens, gas scrubbers, smokestacks and the usual twisted melange of pipes that accompany such things. Once a blast furnace is started it will continuously run for four to ten years with only short stops to perform planned maintenance.

This is a building with a history of violence. Battleship cannons were tempered in this building. During WWII, all the Navy's 16" cannons were forged at Bethlehem and tempered here. It is also the site of tragedy where 8 workers perished in a single incident involving a carbon monoxide leak.

The illuminated building on the right is the Central Tool Annex. In the background are the administrative buildings where some of America's mightiest businessmen once made decisions that affected the fate of the world.

The once mighty Bethlehem Steel Administration building. At one time, America's highest paid corporate executive worked here.

A "welfare room" is an old-fashioned term for "locker room". Instead of actual lockers, employees would place their valuables in a basket, hoist it up to the ceiling, then padlock it to a numbered post.

A "welfare room" at the Bethlehem Steel Lehigh plant.

I was taking pictures in one of the welfare rooms when I backed into this low-hung basket and discovered the remains of two baby birds inside.

By accelerating a rotor to a very high speed and maintaining the energy as inertial energy, power can be generated with high efficiency. The size and weight of these flywheels contributed the their enertia, thus providing maximum energy output from minimal energy input.

The gas-blowing engines at Bethlehem Steel generated electricity for the plant as well as high-pressure air for the blast furnaces. They were built in the 1890s and ran reliably, 24-hours a day 7 days a week, for 100 years.

No. 2 machine shop was the main ordnance facility of the bethlehem plant. During World War I alone, 65,000,000 pounds of forged military products, 1,100,000,000 pounds of steel for shells, and 20,000,000 rounds of artillery ammunition were produced here.

During the wars the steel had to paint over many windows to help conceal itself in case of air attack at night. An attack never happened of course, but you have to consider that with as much ordnance as Bethehem Steel produced it would have been a prime target.

There is a very old and rickety catwalk between No. 2 machine shop and the steel foundry building. No. 2 machine shop was built in the 1890s, so everything was very old and i kept imagining this catwalk giving way and me either crashing through the roof or tumbling down and crashing through those windows.

Bethlehem was an 'integrated' steel mill. They owned their own mines, they owned their own rails, they produced their own power. They controlled every aspect of steelmaking from the mines to the finished product. They even had their own fire and police department.

I visited Bethlehem Steel in 2003 - eight years after the blast furnaces were shut down, and five years after they closed the entire plant. Already nature was taking the entire place back.

Today the Sands Casino owns the entire Bethlehem Steel Lehigh Plant. The furnaces remain intact, and they have installed a walkway to allow vistors an up-close look at them.

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Wayne love	05/31/2024
I worked at Bethlehem Steel in the city of Vernon for five years in the rebar department
DAVID MORENO	10/22/2023
MY DAD WORKED AT BETHLEHEM STEEL IN THE CITY OF VERNON FOR 36-37 YEARS. HE USE TO WORK IN THE 16 MILL AND WAS DEVOTED TO HIS JOB. HIS NAME WAS PHILLIP MORENO AND HE HAD A BOTHER NAMED LOUIE MORENO WHO ALSO WORKED THERE. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT THAT JOB SEPARATED THE MEN FROM THE BOYS.
Eileen Clayborn Chyzinski	07/29/2023
My father, M.D. Clayborn, was a crane operator at the plant from 1942 until he retired in 1973. I remember going with my father to pick up his pay check. He would park across the street and you could feel the heat. My Uncle J. D. Clayborn also worked there in the wire mill.
Chris Morales	01/16/2022
My Dad Worked there from 1940s until he Retired in 1978, Any Photos of the workers?
Lisa Wilcox	08/22/2021
Hey, descendants of Vernon workers! My dad was chief engineer at the plant for decades. Did any of you do the open house tour? It was incredible.
Lisa Wesselman Almaguer	06/18/2019
My Grandfather worked for Bethlehem Steel, the Vernon location. He started as a temporary employee in 1946 after WWII and worked there until he retired. Sadly, I've never seen the plant but I have heard stories from my Grandparents.
Adamczyk	06/05/2018
Steelworkers are a brotherhood that includes our steelworker sisters, so while we LOVE our BSC Vernon brothers and sisters, it may be worth noting that all the photos here depict the BSC Lehigh plant in Bethlehem, PA the original.
Cheryl Stella	05/29/2018
I left the name of my father off the post, it was Duane Reineman
Cheryl Stella	05/29/2018
My father also worked at the Vernon plant from early 1950 maybe late 1940's until the 1970's, my uncle was also the plant superintendent during this period. I have lots of pictures my dad kept. Group pictures, and lots of plant pictures and individual pictures of the guys.
Marilynn Simon Stumfall	11/15/2016
My dad Al Simon worked for Bethlehem Steel in Vernon from 1934 to 1969 and died in 1970. I have memories of the molten red ingots on some kind of railroad cars. And especially I remember when the molten steel was poured. Last he work with the Electric Furance. Once he came home badly burnt.
Joyce Underwood Horak	10/09/2016
My father worked for Bethlehem Steel, Vernon from the mid 1940s until he o retired in the late 1960s. My husband also worked there for almost 15 years. As a child my dad and I would stand outside the fence and watch the dinky diesel train pull the flatbeds of steel around the property.
Timothy Martin	08/04/2016
I remember passing by the Vernon plant on Slauson Ave. you would see them lifting those molten red hot giant chunks of steel, You would fill the heat as you passed by. I wish there was some photos of that.
thomas robinson	05/15/2016
I remember passing the Vernon plant.stopping at downey ave. you could look inside and see the large vats with orange glow liquid steel. scared me as a kid,but wow,what a site!! I miss the America I grew up with!!
Fred Mihalow	01/30/2016
It's too bad we can't see more photos with BSCO doing what it used to do -- making steel.
Ronald Norberg	02/16/2014
I also worked at Vernon plant. 12 rolling mill and rebar shop. any photos?

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Almost Gone (photographs of Bethlehem Steel)

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Almost Gone (photographs of Bethlehem Steel)

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