page_title: Bethlehem Steel
section_title: Closing and bankruptcy
hierarchical_section_title: Bethlehem Steel / History / Bethlehem Steel Corporation / Closing and bankruptcy
caption_attribution_description: U.S.S. Massachusetts
context_page_description: The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steel and shipbuilding company that for much of the 20th century was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. The company's roots trace to 1857 with the establishment of the Bethlehem Iron Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem Steel was formed in 1904 through the merger of the earlier companies, and existed through the decline of American steel manufacturing during the 1970s until its bankruptcy in 2001 and final dissolution in 2003.
  The Bethlehem Steel Company became the primary subsidiary company of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1904. The Bethlehem Steel Company is the first Bethlehem Steel while the Bethlehem Steel Corporation is the second Bethlehem Steel; both companies existed simultaneously after 1904, but the Bethlehem Steel Company was eventually merged into the Bethlehem Steel Corporation in the 1960s. After a decline in the American steel industry and other problems leading to the company's bankruptcy in 2001, the Corporation was dissolved and its remaining assets were sold to International Steel Group in 2003.
context_section_description: Despite the closing of its local operations, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation tried to reduce the impact on the Lehigh Valley area with plans to revitalize the south side of Bethlehem. It hired consultants to develop conceptual plans on the reuse of the massive property. The consensus was to rename the 163 acres (66 ha) site Bethlehem Works and to use the land for cultural, recreational, educational, entertainment, and retail development. The National Museum of Industrial History, in association with the Smithsonian Institution and the Bethlehem Commerce Center, consisting of 1,600 acres (650 ha) of prime industrial property, would be erected on the site along with a casino and a large retail and entertainment complex.
  Inexpensive steel imports and the failure of management to innovate, embrace technology, and improve labor conditions contributed to Bethlehem Steel's demise.
  In 1998, after denied pension benefits, a lawsuit was filed in the 3rd Court of Appeals in Philadelphia: “Lawrence Hollyfield, Fiduciary to the Estate of Collins Hollyfield v. PENSION PLAN OF BETHLEHEM STEEL CORPORATION and Subsidiary Companies;” It was settled in favor of Hollyfield in 2001. It led to a class action lawsuit filed by the workers union soon thereafter. This settlement also led to Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PGBC) assuming all pension payouts from Bethlehem Steel, the largest such assumption in U.S. History.
  In 2001, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation filed for bankruptcy. In 2003, the company was dissolved and its remaining assets, including the six plants, were acquired by the International Steel Group. International Steel Group was in turn acquired by Mittal Steel in 2005, which then merged with Arcelor to become ArcelorMittal in 2006.
  In 2007, the Bethlehem property was sold to Sands BethWorks, and plans to build a casino where the plant once stood were drafted. Construction began in fall 2007; the casino was completed in 2009. Ironically, the casino had difficulty finding structural steel for construction due to a global steel shortage and pressure to build Pennsylvania's tax-generating casinos. 16,000 tons of steel were needed to build the $600 million complex.
  The site of the company's original plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is home to SteelStacks, an arts and entertainment district. The plant's five blast furnaces were left standing and serve as a backdrop for the new campus. SteelStacks currently features the ArtsQuest Center, a contemporary performing arts center, the Wind Creek Bethlehem casino resort, a gambling emporium, and new studios for PBS member station WLVT-TV (channel 39). The area also includes three outdoor music venues – Levitt Pavilion, a free music venue featuring lawn seating for up to 2,500 people, Air Products Town Square at Steelstacks, and PNC Plaza, which hosts concerts featuring well-known artists. Levitt Pavilion and the Sands Casino Resort are connected via the Hoover-Mason Trestle linear park.
  In 2012, Bethlehem Steel, a three-piece indie rock band, named itself after the company to honor it.
  On November 9, 2016, a warehouse being used as a recycling facility that was part of the Lackawanna, New York, Bethlehem Steel Complex caught fire and burned down.
  The corporate records of Bethlehem Steel are housed at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, DE and at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, PA. 
  On May 19, 2019, the former Bethlehem Steel headquarters building in the west side of Bethlehem was imploded.
caption: USS Massachusetts was built at Bethlehem Steel's Fore River Shipyard during World War II.
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