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Bethlehem Steel Shipyard - History

Bethlehem Steel, based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was, at its pinnacle, the second largest steel manufacturer in the United States. The history of the Bethlehem Shipyard is quite remarkable, as it was one of the largest ship building businesses on the planet and an important player in the United States shipbuilding market for decades. Its ultimate demise is also an important part of history.

Bethlehem Shipyard's history begins in 1857 when the Saucona Iron Company was founded by entrepreneur Augustus Wolle. Due to a countrywide financial disaster that same year, the company had little chance to grow and prosper. Finally, when the economy recovered, the company recovered as well and was moved to a new site in South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The name of the company was changed to The Bethlehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company.

The board of directors of the new Bethlehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company designated Alfred Hunt president of the company on June 14, 1860. The production of the first blast furnace for the Bethlehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company began on July 1, 1861 and the furnace went into full operation on January 4, 1863. In the meantime, the first rolling mill assembly was begun in the spring of 1861 and concluded by the summer if 1863. The first train rails made by the company were rolled on September 26, 1863.

Bethlehem Shipyard history continues with the addition of a machine shop in 1865 and another blast furnace in 1867. In these early years, the Bethlehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company fashioned rails for the expanding railroad system in the United States as well as armor plating for the United States Navy.

In 1899, the Bethlehem Rolling Mill and Iron Company became the Bethlehem Steel Company and remained as such until its failure more than 100 years later. In 1904, Charles M. Schwab, who had recently resigned from the Bethlehem Steel Company's major rival and the US's largest steel producer, US Steel, and Joseph Wharton, who had founded the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, organized the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and Schwab became the first president and chairman of the board of directors.

After 1904, the Bethlehem Steel Company moved into an important position in the United States' steel industry and established the revolutionary grey rolling mill and created the first wide-flange structural shapes made in the United States. These wide-flange structural shapes were used for ushering in the age of the modern day skyscraper and they launched the Bethlehem Steel Company into a position as the top provider of steel to the construction industry.

The early 1900s saw the Bethlehem Steel Company branch out from ‘just steel' - the Bethlehem Steel Company built iron mines in Cuba and shipyards around the US. The Bethlehem Steel Company purchased the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, situated in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1913. Bethlehem Steel Company integrated the shipbuilding division in 1917 as the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Limited, which was known as BethShip.

From 1916 to 1945, Eugene Grace was the president of the Bethlehem Steel Company and served as the chairman of the board from 1945 until he retired in 1957. Throughout Grace's tenure, the Bethlehem Steel Company manufactured the steel needed for many prominent landmarks in the United States, including:

* Bonneville Dam

* George Washington Bridge

* Grand Coulee Dam

* Hoover Dam

* Most of the 60,000 tons of steel for the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, which was once the world's largest building

* New York City's Madison Square Garden

* New York City's Rockefeller Center

* San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

The Bethlehem Steel Company also played a major role throughout the First and Second World Wars, serving as a provider of armor plates and ordnance products for the Armed Forces. Many of the United States' Navy ships for the war used armor plating and large caliber guns made by Bethlehem Steel.

During the Second World War, the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, with its 15 shipyards, manufactured 1,121 ships for the United States Navy, which constitutes more ships than any other shipbuilder produced throughout the Second World War. At the time, the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation employed 180,000 people in their shipbuilding operations and the Bethlehem Steel Company had a total employment of approximately 300,000. When the Second World War was over, the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation continued to supply structural shapes for construction trades and made products for defense, power generation, and steel producing companies.

The pinnacle of the Bethlehem Steel Company's career was during the 50s, when the company was producing approximately 23 million tons of steel each year. Between 1962 and 1964, the Bethlehem Steel Company assembled its largest plant at Burns Harbor, Indiana. Arthur B. Homer, the Bethlehem Steel Company president elected in 1958, was the highest paid business director in the United States.

Another division of the Bethlehem Steel Company operated from 1923 to 1991 and was one of the foremost producers of railroad freight cars and the pioneer of the use of aluminum for freight car construction.

In the 1980s, the Bethlehem Steel Company experienced some major problems caused by competition with foreign markets. Foreign producers manufactured steel using the most modern technologies, allowing them to turn out steel at a much cheaper and faster rate, and Bethlehem Steel Company couldn't match their prices, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars.

In 1995, Bethlehem Steel stopped the production of steel at their main plant. They ceased making railroad cars in 1993, and by 1997, had ceased making ships as well. By this time, it was only a matter of time before the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard was closed permanently. In 2001, the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard filed for bankruptcy.

The remaining six Bethlehem Steel Shipyard plants were purchased by the International Steel Group at the time that Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy.

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