Requiem for a steel mill

[Inspectorjoe]

While doing a phase inspection last week, I sensed that something seemed vaguely familiar about the windows in the family room. It was like I had seen them before. I snapped a picture of them and moved on.

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It came to me later, where I had ‘seen’ them. I had snapped a similar picture last year, when I walked around the perimeter of the defunct Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA.

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What a sad history that place has. The site had been in continuous use for iron and steelmaking for 140 years when steel was poured for the last time on November 18, 1995. At its peak, some 40,000 people were employed at this plant alone. Now it’s being torn down to make way for a casino.

Some of the plant is being saved, including the 1/3 mile long Machine Shop 2, which when it was built in 1888-89 was the largest industrial building in the world. The blast furnaces are being saved too. Here’s a pic I took of them from across the Lehigh River.

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I ran across a series of photographs by an amazingly talented young photographer, Shaun O’Boyle.

Photographs by Shaun O'Boyle

Looking at the photos, it’s hard to believe that it’s only been 13 years since men last worked in those places. I found a YouTube video that shows what a hellish, other-worldly environment those guys were in.

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[Bill Kibbel]

Hi Joe,

Every time I go to or from the airport, I make it a point to drive around Bethlehem Steel. I often get a certain feeling when I'm around old abandoned buildings that have had historically significant activity. The feeling is almost overwhelming when I'm in the shadows of the complex that had such a major part of industrializing America.

Bethlehem Steel also supplied the components for munitions and thousands of ships for both world wars and landmarks like the George Washington Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, Grand Coulee Dam, Hoover Dam and the San Francisco Railway.

I've had the pleasure of inspecting some of the early execs' homes and their hunting lodge.

[Inspectorjoe]

Originally posted by inspecthistoric

Hi Joe,

Every time I go to or from the airport, I make it a point to drive around Bethlehem Steel. I often get a certain feeling when I'm around old abandoned buildings that have had historically significant activity. The feeling is almost overwhelming when I'm in the shadows of the complex that had such a major part of industrializing America.

Bethlehem Steel also supplied the components for munitions and thousands of ships for both world wars and landmarks like the George Washington Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, Grand Coulee Dam, Hoover Dam and the San Francisco Railway.

I've had the pleasure of inspecting some of the early execs' homes and their hunting lodge.

I’ve never inspected any of the original executive’s residences on the avenues, but I did do a later one from the 50’s near Saucon Valley Country Club. It was a long time ago, but I remember that it was way overbuilt and it had commercial electrical distribution equipment.

I think the Steel site is especially awe-inspiring because it really hasn’t been modernized very much through the 20th century. When it closed, there was 100 year old equipment in use. Shaun O’Boyle’s photos of the gas blowing engines illustrate that. They look like they could have been taken at the turn of the century, but they’re recent photos of equipment that was in use only 13 years ago. Amazing!

Gas Blowing Engines

Yesterday morning I was working in one the Steel’s old office buildings on Third Street. I got a nice rooftop view of some of the buildings that are being saved. The one in the foreground with the EPDM roof is supposedly going to be the home of the National Museum of Industrial History, which will eventually house the industrial machinery from the Smithsonian Institution's 1876 centennial exhibit. The oldest of the blast furnaces in the background date back to 1903.

Rooftop View

It’s been nearly a year since I last spent any time at the site. I had the time, so I walked around the site again yesterday. It seems like the demolition is finally complete and the casino construction is in full swing.

Worksite

I can’t really see how the new buildings are going to be incorporated in with the existing buildings, especially ‘stranded’ ones such as the ‘High House’ in the background next to the bridge. The High House was used to heat treat Battleship guns.

High House

They saved one of the two ore bridges. The remaining one is forever fixed in place, with its tracks gone.

Ore Bridge

Ore Bridge

Check out these abandoned castings. Look at the size of what I think is a bearing in the background. It’s as big as the rail car. I can’t imagine what that would have been used in.

Castings