Bethlehem Steel Co. Blast Furnaces, Bethlehem, PA

We visited the historic Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania as we made our way through the state. The "Steel Stacks" is an area that the city built up as a community center so that folks can see the remains of Bethlehem Steel's blast furnaces and learn more about the history of the iconic location that helped build this country. There's an elevated walkway that folks can visit for up close views of the blast furnaces and other parts of the old factory. Nearby is the National Museum of Industrial History this is highly recommended you visit also.
#abomadventures #bethlehemsteel #blastfurnace #industrialheritage
Follow us on our Instagram page to stay current with our Adventurers! / abomadventures
/ abombbq
Our Amazon Affiliates storefront has many of the useful RV tools, equipment, BBQ tools and supplies that we use ourselves. Buying on Amazon through this link helps support our channel. Thank you!
www.amazon.com...

[@ajcampbellconstruction6504]

I grew up in the Lehigh valley in the 80,s and 90’s. I remember when the stacks shut down in 1995 - I was in high school. Everyone new someone or had a family member that worked at “the steel”. I remember the exploring around the stack in the late 90,s early 2000’s. It was like a bomb went off. Glad to see it’s being redeveloped and preserved- truly a part of American history. Sparrows point in Baltimore survived a little long but suffered the same fate. It has since been. Bulldozed and Amazon warehouses build on it. I drove past there more now as I live and work outside Baltimore.

[@keithmcmurray188]

I use to pickup from there back in 1986-87. When I drove flatbed. I asked the loader if they had a machine shop. I told him I was a machinist and He said yes and took me over to see it. Reminded me of my great-uncle that was a master machinist for the Youngstown sheet and tube. Watching this brought back a lot of memories. I remember when it was still in operations.❤️

[@megaboombox1]

Great video. My father was a steel man. U.S STEEL, TCI , TENNESSEE COAL AND IRON, AND BETHLEHEM STEEL. I would have never been able to see where my father worked because I live in the deep south, Alabama. He was transferred from Birmingham USS TO BETHLEHEM STEEL when I was 7 years old. Also I live walking distance to Sloss Furnace and have done photo shoots there. Thanks for the video.

[@zakksrage]

The rainy cloudy day produced the absolute best lighting for this video. If it was bright an sunny all the detail would be blown out

[@WeThePeople321n]

So much history in that building….the sadness of an industry lost in America. Thanks to you guys for this video!

[@RobDeHaven]

The complexity of these buildings and everything it took to make these systems work together is truly a fascinating and huge accomplishment. They did all this before computers. The industrial revolution is one of the greatest periods in human history. Such a bittersweet thing to see it all rusting away, but thankful they are trying to preserve it for people to enjoy its rich history and beauty.

[@imdeplorable2241]

My brother and I worked on the rebuild of blast furnace #3 at the US Steel Edgar Thomson mill in 2001. I installed temporary lights and power from the very bottom to the very top and on every level of that furnace. This Bethlehem furnace is very similar. The technology is the same on both --- the unloading platform, the skip loader, and the heaters, for example. Brings back memories. Thank you for taking us on this tour. I didn't know they had preserved it. Very nice. There is a similar project in Rankin, PA called Carrie Blast Furnaces.

[@dlwilliams76]

Sad. Just plain sad. What have we done? The music fits the mood perfectly. Thank you.

[@carmine6871]

I love how someone scratched out how union demands help contribute to the decline @ 9:54. Everyone wants to blame someone else. Unions are good but they cause a lot of damage as well.

[@normangarland6558]

Just remember that we regulated and priced ourselves into the closure!!

[@ytubechannel997]

Thank you for sharing such an important part of American history. So sad what has happened to the rust belt.

[@jakeo2600]

@@0neOver0neThreeSeven Well said!

[@keymasterken]

The music was soo appropriate! I had a plant tour of Bethlehem Steel in the early 1970's during my college days as part of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. It was in full operation. They has a large tank on a nearby mountain that fed oxygen into the blast furnaces at the speed of sound. We also were on the dirt floor observing a large shaft being forged and manipulated by motorized chains. This plant was a very impressive at the time of my visit. Thank you for sharing your visit with all of us. I now reside is central New Jersey as a retired mechanical engineer.

[@bcbloc02]

Most of the former steel plants from this era have been torn down at this point. Glad to see some still remain but probably not for long. Keeping those kinds of places from being taken back by nature costs a big chunk of cash.

[@jackmeyers9291]

Bethlehem's biggest steel mill was in Sparrows Point a suburb of Baltimore. It was the largest tidewater steel mill in the world.

[@rickdenney5772]

Beth Steel begat Beth Shipbuilding and had shipyards all over. The biggest in its day was the Beth Steel mill and shipyard in Sparrows Point, Maryland. As it happens, Beth Steel at Sparrows Point was the first owner of my South Bend 14-1/2” Toolroom lathe, delivered to their Electrical Department in 1946. It was originally supplied with a 525-volt, 25-Hz three-phase motor with a speed of 1410 RPM. Beth Steel, there and where you were, had to generate its own power. (Only Amtrak still uses 25-Hz power, for its catenary electric trains in the northeast corridor.) They rebuilt the lathe to near perfection and equipped it with a conventional motor before selling it, and it’s still making stuff 77 years after it was first delivered. Thank you for a great video! I agree with another comment praising the music choice-just perfect for the ghosts that seem to float around that plant.

[@richb313]

Thanks for sharing this besides the rust what I see is thousands of jobs lost through mismanagement.

[@barbaraedgley2634]

Sad that its gone. So many changes time brings.

[@waynec3121]

Amazing seeing the bones of this massive piece of history

[@grillinandchillinwithdeb]

Wow what an amazing stretch of history, the video was awesome the music was on point with the eerienesss of it. So cool

[@WeThePeople321n]

Kinda eerie but sad too.

[@jeffh4505]

I love Bethlehem, and the stacks. I've been several times (for the running festival, but also just because the area is amazing. I can't wait to be able to visit again this year) The history, and sheer size of the factory and foundry are mind boggling. It would have been so cool to see it all up and running back in the day. Fun trivia fact; the opening scene of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was filmed at the stacks. There's still some writing on the walls of a building or two from that filming.

[@DAKOTANSHELBY]

I remember watching your Birmingham Steel Plant Tour when you released it. Amazing! And this tour of the Bethlehem Steel ruins is over the top! Thank you!

[@Giovanni_Adventures]

Wow, I'm glad they still have that, I'll have to make that my next road trip.

[@pilgrimm23]

Thanks guys. I lived as time in the Rust belt. I saw Bethlehem before the shut down. it was a CITY.. I was a kid then. I mostly remember the noise. it was visceral

[@dillydallydollcomachineand8246]

Thanks for the video great to see. Sloss was also a great Video.

[@williegillie5712]

Here’s a place full of history. It was amazing to see the tools they used years ago. I can picture workers throughout the place working like they did back then.

[@maggs131]

Its a shame the majority of people probably see just a rotting monolith that should be razed to make room for a cell tower or a Walmart. Your upload of this displays a justified portion of reverence. You and I dont see something to be forgotten and removed. I see the families and lives that depended on these jobs that weren't to make frivolous things. It built cars, trucks, bridges, buildings and likely items in all major American wars to help win our freedom. Thank you for posting this 🫶

[@nathan_livingourjourney365]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for sharing a piece if Americana that my mother was apart of. She used to work in that 5 football length long building making wire rope for America's bridges. After working in Pa she tranfereed to Los Angeles BS where she ended her career. She worked for Bethlehem Steel for almost 20yrs before she was forced to quit due to cancer.

[@rick9426]

Sad it’s closed. I just lost my job at a steel mill in Canton, Ohio. Place shut down with no warning, been out a job for 2 month. I Start a new job at another mill in October. Wish me luck.

[@davepaulison2046]

Abom and urbex combined, my weekend is complete.

[@floridaflywheelersantiquee7578]

Thanks for sharing lots of history preserve the past for the future.

[@1hasbeen531]

I knew many people who worked at "The Steel", and many other plants in the Lehigh Valley. The Bethlehem Steel "coke works" was east of there in Hellertown. If you are still in the area, try to see the Mack Trucks Museum.

[@aquablue3803]

Absolutely amazing. Would be better to see in person. WOW

[@davidwinn9465]

You picked the perfect background music for this. As amazing as this mill is, it is equally sad, all of the human lives that were impacted by this site over the decades, both positive and negative, is something truly remarkable. I live down the road from there and drive past there every so often, each time I do I can’t help but think what it must have been like back in it’s prime time.

[@chikinbonechew]

Just watch Gettysburg tour and as someone working in western pa manufacturing, but has lived in naturally beautiful colorado, there is so much that just hits a little different in areas like this. More northeast big hauls have been earned. TY.

[@kurtzbradley]

Second time watching this for whatever reason this industry or lost industry fascinates me. To think of this as a bustling city of workers, the noise, heat, commotion, pretty incredible.

[@btree-gz1qr]

The music was perfect. Its so sad to see how the great ironworkers used to build our country, with American steel.

[@BillyLapTop]

Great video Abby and Adam. What a monument to American history. Things do change.

[@mohabatkhanmalak1161]

I heard about this steel plant in the 1970's - in reports and magazines like popular mechanics. 🏭In the early 1980's while studying engineering overseas, I wished to work at this Bethelehem Steel works in metallurgy and their other departments. Its quite a big plant, well all of them were. The old ones in the Ruhr region of Germany were massive too. All the people who worked there, and the city around the plant. So much has changed, today most of the steel is made in China and India.⚒

[@francisschweitzer8431]

I grew up in Philadelphia…. EVERYONE Knew about Bethlehem PA and Bethlehem Steel. …. It was a city by itself before Bethlehem was even a city. All of the steel used in Mack trucks came from where you are standing

[@1hasbeen531]

Philly, home of Tastykakes!

[@mazchen]

I like doing such tours with a guide. Preferable one who was working there. Their stories help a lot to understand what working at such places meant. Was visiting a coal mine and coke factory in German Ruhr area last year... I find it really important to preserve the legacy...

[@peterehnes559]

Thanks for sharing Such a well done video Incredible history You can hear the people and machines working Geaux Tigers

[@jimtomassetti8928]

Thank You so very much for this beautiful historic plant. 😢

[@jbmecham]

Excellent job documenting an amazing facility and history. Really makes me want to visit. Thanks for sharing!!!

[@LeDabe]

These steel cathedral have always kept me in awe, I'd love to see one running.

[@stevedugas8988]

My grandfather worked there. My father worked there. Four uncles worked there. One aunt worked in the Main Office. I worked there in the summers of 1968, 1969 and 1970. The mill is gone and so are my grandfather, father, uncles and aunt. Bethlehem was a fine place to grow up then, smoky, smelly and loud. Thomas Wolfe was right; you really can't ever go home again.

[@jmcenterprises9591]

Nice job Adam, on this video! Thanks for bringing us along.

[@Lamprolign]

Awesome video. Thank you for making it.

[@michaelhe34]

Thanks for the video tour. Wow what a piece of Americana

[@cosmodegennaro111]

Great video guys as always, this place is amazing. We have our daughter she lives 15 minutes from the Steel and we always go and hang out and enjoy some of the activities. Great job, oh and yes I enjoy your cooking show, lol

[@GreggObst]

I hope you got the chance to go two blocks south to the National Museum of Industrial History. They have a ton of preserved machinery and displays from Bethlehem Steel, including models illustrating how the steel was made, in addition to the history of other industrial businesses from the area, like knitting mills, and a history of the petroleum and natural gas industries.

[@AbomAdventures]

Went there yes, I featured that video on my main channel Abom79.

[@willemvantsant5105]

We had Bethlehem beams in our oil refinery on the West Coast of Australia, built mid fifties, now closed. Lucky to see where they came from, end of an era.

[@mrashfest]

Great video, the music selection is bang on

[@playwithmeinsecondlife6129]

This is where my dad and my uncle worked during WWII

[@sirmcardelsir8468]

grew up down the road from Bethlehem in Lackawanna NY would of been cool to see it in its prime.

[@onkyomitsu4765]

thank you for sharing!!

[@baswouters6494]

I can't wait for the Starrett tour video. Great video!

[@AbomAdventures]

We’re still working on those, Starrett has been previewing and working with me on edits needed.

[@jamesogorman3287]

Well produced and edited.

[@08noneill]

Glad you’re in my neck of the woods. Certainly different part of America that you’ve been exploring

[@stoffersfamily4309]

What a poignant and haunting tribute to part of what once made our country so great. How far the mighty have fallen.......

[@scottbenauer1189]

It’s pretty in one hand but sad in another it’s sad seeing the might of American industry gone.

[@PhilG999]

As with so many other of our industries! Now everything is made in China or India or God only knows where. Metal is whatever they had to throw in the pot that day. Could be steel, but WHAT steel is anybody's guess. Is it 4130 or 4140? Um, we're not sure, probably not... Our Grandparents that actually MADE things here must be spinning in their graves!

[@bobcollins3762]

Thank you so much for sharing this video!!! Great job!!! Sad but true.

[@David-jo4gt]

Incredible video. It is amazing to see what America accomplished in the past. I am not sure we could do it now. I want to see this before it's gone. Did you feel safe in the area? Thank you for sharing this with us.

[@larrybl]

True Proper People fashion.

[@Racedoc]

What had made this country great sadly is gone because of greed and corruption.

[@willemvantsant5105]

We had a blast furnace next to our oil refinery owned by Australian Iron and Steel, they spent millions on upgrade, a year later it closed back in the early eighties. All we do now is get the iron ore out of the ground and ship it to China, very sad.

[@jerrysmallwood8099]

Well done you two. love this.

[@MrStarlin51]

This was cool that place id like a small town on its own

[@tjr4744]

Wow !!!

[@s_cutt]

That kind of looks futuristic

[@philipallard8026]

I hope you also went to tour the Moravian Village in Bethlehem while you were there.

[@summerz8867]

✨Great video well done✨

[@generessler6282]

Yeah I lived about 20 miles from "The Steel" until starting military service in '74. It was the place to work. Terrific salaries and benefits owed to strong unions and that giant infrastructure financed by WW2 mobilization. The laments that somehow the US was once great and has failed because we don't make bulk steel any more are missing a point. Yeah it was very sad to see BSC go away. Certainly it caused much, much pain in the Lehigh Valley as third generation Steelers lost processing jobs and often didn't have other skills. Some were dads and moms of high school friends. Whether we like it or not, technology marches on. All that furnace infra was obsoleted by newer designs that the Japanese capitalized after WW2, enabled by US benevolence during the occupation. They could make better steel and cheaper. Most of what you're seeing on this tour would have needed replacement to continue in the market. The investment dollars just weren't there. One way of looking at it is that they were used in prior years to buy the good lives of past Steelers. You might argue the government should have stepped in to rebuild everything. But that would be an "ism" - take your pick - that people who don't like government are firmly against. Today the US makes high tech - which didn't even exist when BSC went under - rather than steel and leads the world from that level. You can have freedom and free markets with industries coming and going, or you can have government control and footing big bills with our tax dollars to protect the same ones forever. Take your pick.

[@ianandmollyhestoppedliving1781]

Top Rate

[@Glitch-nr9ct]

LoL.....I feel like i'm there with my dad and he's telling me everything I need to know about steel production even though he was a painting contractor. ".....now here is where *your oar gets dumped and right there is where *your oar is gonna travel up to *your blast furnace" 😂 The dad language is so universal.

[@grillinandchillinwithdeb]

Went back and watched your video on sloss furnace, it was great, I also watched a video about the ghosts of sloss furnace just in case you might be interested in that

[@Davemcmasters]

Bethlehem steel is right here in my backyard as well. Lackawanna New York. It’s just as big as that site or bigger.

[@garyoa1]

Never realized how massive that place actually was.

[@computername]

A beautiful industrial memorial of a great industry. What I find is that people don't really get the lesson. Most people in the western world complain about the loss of industry and jobs, but at the same time complain that they're not getting enough, consuming the cheapest possible products like there was no tomorrow. What I take away from sites like this is responsibility as a consumer. I look at this and see the hard work of generations destroyed. I am humbled. But why is it like that? Nobody wants to consider the supply chains of products? And yes, this means we cannot have as many things as we would, if we bought products without this consideration. And it's that inevitable necessity of having _less_ that triggers Americans in particular. Any criticism of boundary-less consumerism gets immediately attacked and associated with political left ideologies. I assume this is due to generations of having this consumerist lifestyle hammered into the population. Though it is not a political concern, it is very practical. The american economic model, which is being so manically defended by it's own population, is the very cause of this cycle of industries emerging and disappearing. People see this and put the blame on politicians, or some world conspiracy, but it is much more trivial. It's in our hands, with every purchase we make. But that's too hard of a truth to swallow for many. As far the interest of this channel goes, for example I try to find old, used tools, instead of buying a new product from Asia. That has nothing to do with nationalism, racism or the idea that quality products can't be made overseas (Because they can, if it's spec'd). It is simply the result of taking the lesson from sites like this and not contributing the economy that causes this. But this means, I can't do "retail therapy". I have to wait for ages until I can find a tool I'm looking for. It might not be as convenient to use as a modern product or will need fettling, but the point is, I'm not consuming products that are part of an economy I don't support. And that responsibility starts with us. No government or corporation can do that for us. That is also what freedom means. Freedom doesn't mean having as much _STUFF_ as possible. Freedom is having a choice, and a responsibility as an individual. Yes it's a drop in the Ocean. But everyone thinks that. All that matters is making a difference. It won't fix it but I don't care. I love my old tools and learning how to use them like back in the day.

[@nickdecker2350]

Well said, i try to do the same as much as possible. Which, coincidentally, is how i ended up getting into collecting my old tools and machines so that i can be the one to make and repair as much as possible for myself and friends

[@oldfarmshow]

👍👍

[@markgordon6971]

A lot of history and a lot of hard ship.

[@1911wood]

Wife asked, why they are playing that creepy music. I said cause it the Halloween season and Abby is into it. So back me up on that if she asks.

[@frankwortmann4661]

Think of all the American Jobs that were lost when the plant closed, just so we could import lesser quality steel from overseas companies.

[@12345anton6789]

The mini mills across the US has replaced all the steel from mills like this. You can’t produce steel with a 50++ year old technology that hardly was updated. The new mini mills is a much better way to produce steel and it does so much cheaper

[@slyfox7429]

The saddest part of all this is that if someone were to demolish all of the stacks and buildings and level the terrain is that nobody would care. It might make page two in the local paper. Seems like history buffs are as antique as the stacks you are standing next to. Even the camera you are using will be antique. Photographers today are also antique as nobody cares about printed photos anymore. Good to see the old stuff. Keep on having fun and filming. stay safe.

[@WeThePeople321n]

Much of our industry has gone overseas or to Mexico….very sad for America. Almost looks like tears falling down over this area.

[@rainerpenner8202]

The focus on steel production in north America has shifted from the blast furnace like this, to the mini mill carbon arc furnaces. It's better to leave the heavy pollution of the blast furnace in developing countries and focus on cleaner processes

[@jbone9900]

​@@rainerpenner8202ether way we need good easy high pay low skill jobs or at this rate the middle class will be a dream.

[@12345anton6789]

This mill was outdated 50 years ago, you just can’t run a steel mill with this old technology. The mini mills all around the US has replaced all the steel production from mills like this

[@montymc450]

Cool site for a scifi movie

[@deakindog7525]

pittsburgh area code 412 same formula ratio for steel, coincidence? saw the carrie plant. my dad worked there short time after ww2, cousin's husband, iron worker, did maintenance on the furnaces. what impressed me was the the equipment like the rolling mills and others had to be made from another (smaller) source at the beginning ........

[@jmptaz]

So amazing but also so sad that it is just rusting away and all the folks that used to work there that lost there jobs

[@neilpuckett359]

It's sickening what's been done to our country.

[@michaelprozonic]

when steel stacks were active, the air in south Bethlehem was unbreathable. The company failed because of mismanagement, not competition. They refused to adapt to more modern technologies. They had their own hangar for airplanes that the executive’s wives used to fly to Europe to go shopping. The execs built 4 golf courses in the area because the kept refusing to play with ‘common’ people and lower level execs. The company was successful because of the wartime defense contracts. Once the war ended, they could no longer compete and refused to modernize. Management incompetence

[@erichsh58]

Nothing to do with unions/strikes, increasingly strict and costly governmentregulations, and drastically cheaper foreign competition? Right.

[@jmd1743]

@@erichsh58 Europe is unionized and they are more efficient than these old integrated mills.

[@tonyn3123]

You know, for me, even though you can walk through the complex, I hate to see old structures just rusting away. Adequately preserved? Absolutely.! But not just rusting to eventually fall in. Thanks.

[@Jason-7212]

What a sad sight. What was once a sign of American strength and Industrial might, now a rusting relic.

[@bernardwill7196]

That is a industry museeum.

[@Blackcountrysteam]

It pains me to see any steel works go this way unless you've worked in one it hard to understand how people thought of plant in which they worked

[@bogey19018]

This is what scumbag politicians do to business's.

[@bmck-ss3zb]

America the great! or so once was, hopefully we will be again but it looks pretty bleak right now.

[@TGC32]

@9:49 Scratched out - "Some think that the unions demands on wages and pensions made the situation even worse*

[@aspensulphate]

Scratching it out doesn't make it any less true. Illustrates the mentality of the average union thug.

[@johncolvin2561]

@@aspensulphate Wrong, it was the demands from Wall Street for every growing profits and returns to the stockholders that closed that plant.

[@ocsrc]

50,000 men lost their jobs. The steel went to China and the entire Lehigh Valley went into poverty. It destroyed the Lehigh Valley

[@jmd1743]

The company didn't upgrade the mills.

[@LarryVarner-zq5zd]

Ashame.

[@arthouston7361]

Unions say they fight for jobs. Not this time. They fought for a short term benefit. Now, we buy steel from others who had a better vision, and those jobs at this plant are gone forever. Even the sign gets damaged that suggested the unions may have been at fault here. Now, we have a casino so Chinese folks can come from NYC and gamble. It turns my stomach.

[@THR33STEP]

It wasn’t the Union’s fault.

[@arthouston7361]

@@THR33STEP Oh, partially, it was. The Union raised the cost to the companies of manufacturing vehicles in the United States. and since that big contract was signed, we've lost over 10% of those former Union jobs to "overseas" locations like Mexico and China. The cost of steel from the US was a very big factor as well. Short term thinking.

[@THR33STEP]

@@arthouston7361 A Union contract is negotiated. The Company offers new wages and whatever it want to give them. The Company agrees to pay them when the Company signs on the dotted line. These new benefits are discussed by the Company CFO with the Board of Directors. You can’t blame the Union when the CFO agreed to pay the new benefits. If they didn’t agree to the new benefits, they would have sat down with the Union to negotiate more. Not the Union’s fault when the Company agreed to the contract.

[@arthouston7361]

@@THR33STEP Okay.... that's a little bit like saying that I agree when I have a gun to my head. Furthermore, just because the company agreed doesn't mean that the contract was in the best interest of the unionized workers. It was in the best interests of the Union bosses. Now, many of those jobs have left the United States. So I have to ask you..... if the jobs are gone, how good a contract was it?

[@THR33STEP]

@@arthouston7361 Who had whom at gunpoint? The Company CFO failed the Corporation when the Company CFO reported that the Corporation can afford to pay the Union the new benefits. You’re creating stories that are simply not true.

[@Petrochemtester]

Never be that strong again😢

[@peggymorgan6355]

All because of GREED!!!This is so sad

[@erichsh58]

"Greed"? How so? Perhaps the greed of the unions forever demanding increased wages and benefits, and going on strike if they didn't get it?