Bethlehem Steel

[1958 F.W.D.]

Took the FWD to the Lehigh Valley "Cars and Coffee" meet today which was held at the Steelstacks event center at what is left of the old Bethlehem Steel plant. Here's a pic of the Mistress with Blast Furnaces A,B,C & D in the background. From what I understand at the time they were shut down in 1995, they were the largest and longest operating basic oxygen furnaces in the world. The steel for so, so many american industrial landmarks came out of this facility- virtually every high rise building built in NYC between 1930 and 1980 came out of Bethlehem. Most, if not all of the canons used by the Union Army during the Civil War came out of Bethlehem. Kind of eerie to think that maybe the steel used to build the FWD may have come from here.

The event was very nice- about 200-300 cars, everything from high dollar European and Italian exotics to classic American Muscle to souped up hot rods and customs to rice burners on steroids. But one thing was common throughout the show- everyone's appreciation of each other's machinery and the hobby of automobiles. I was the only truck that showed up and I got a lot of attention, many folks said "Hey thanks for coming! Never had a firetruck before!"

[Bobby j]

Thanks for the picture and the history lesson.........it's really an eye opener to think of all the landmark AMERICAN companies gone by the wayside now.....where are we heading too........bobby j.

[eddeere]

Great picture and a reminder what America was.

[mowerman]

looks terrific,,,you can park it in my yard anytime....opening tesla battery plant,,here in reno,,,everyone is excited to see,,over 6000 jobs coming here,,,wow....nice to see some big improvements here,,,,instead of loosing more and more...bob

[41chevy]

Great photo and nice to see the Steel Mill was saved. The steel from Bethlehem and the sand from Port Washington / Roslyn L.I. are tied together 95% of the sand in NYC concrete came from here. Any more info on the Museum? Paul

[Vladislav]

Thanks to Randy he showed me Bethlehem plant during my visit.

It was too interesting and impressive and much more sorry to see how the things turned out.

Glad to know you had a nice time, FWD is shure a candy to look at on a sunny day

[Green Dash]

Great history and sad reminder of what this country used to be.

Maybe you got he ball rolling for this to evolve into the "Cars, Trucks, and Coffee" show.

[farmer52]

Nice pic of the FWD but sad story about the steel mill and American manufacturing. I drove thru Pittsburgh the other day and nothing left of "big steel" in Steel Town. Sorry state of affairs.

[Rich Reinhart]

I remember when that place was really working.. what a sight..never thought it would ever shut down...

[hicrop10]

Over the years we did a lot of work at both Bethlehem steel and US Steel in Fairless Hills,PA outside of Philly.The last job we did at US Steel was back around 1990,we had to cap a tar pit.At the same time they had sold one of their blast furnace to China.Every morning they would pile off the ship and take the plant down by hand and load it onto the boat.Most of that plant in now a landfill.FWD bit of local news,our home town of Huntingdon Valley now has it first WAWA.Firetruck looks great.

[other dog]

I've loaded beams at Bethlehem many times. One of those places where you'd wait all evening and half the night to get loaded, other than that it wasn't bad. Farmer, i've loaded at US Steel Homestead Works in Pittsburgh too. Now you go right past it going to Galv-Tech but you'd never know it was ever there, just stores and shopping malls there now. Loaded at Fairless Works a few times too, another one of those places where it took all evening and half the night to get loaded. US Steel in Gary, In. was a place that usually took all day and all night to get loaded.

[mackdaddy]

is Tryon still a broker out that way for steel haulers?

[1958 F.W.D.]

That Wawa's been there for about 2 years now!!! My parents live right down the street off of Philmont Avenue. My father was salivating when it was being built- he could walk to get his coffee instead of driving to Byberry/Philmont. LOL

[Green Dash]

is Tryon still a broker out that way for steel haulers?

I have seen the name on flatbed rigs from time to time, but I'm not sure how long it's been since the last sighting.

[Maddog13407]

on a lot of old B models, you can look inside the bumper bracket (the newer ones with the angle iron spacer, no the older ones with a pipe spacer) and you could see the word Bethlehem written. must just happen to be where they sheered it off.

[Red Horse]

AH-Industrial America. I worked in Buffalo in mid-late 60's Beth Steel had a big plant in Lackawanna and first time I went in there I couldn't believe the size of the place-and the plant trucks-mostly GMC gas jobs-trucks that were relatively new but did not have a piece of straight sheet metal on them! Everything hammered. We had a refinery on Elk Street and the river next to us would periodically catch fire.Allied chemical had a big facility near us and next to us was a huge outdoor sulfur pile. Six months after I was transferred out of there I would wash my Mustang and when I rang the chamois out, the water would be yellow! I'm sure all of those facilities are now long gone.