File:1st Street, Steel Stacks, Bethlehem, PA - 52403325623.jpg

English: In operation from 1857 until 1995, the former Bethlehem Steel Mill started as an ironworks known as the Bethlehem Iron Company, which was founded in 1857 as the Saucona Iron Company. The company was reformed as Bethlehem Steel Company in 1899, and then Bethlehem Steel Corporation in 1904. One of the largest steel manufacturers and shipbuilders during the 20th Century, Bethlehem Steel was headquartered in Bethlehem, and supplied the steel used to build many of the most famous and prominent structures in New York City and around the United States. The mill in Bethlehem saw most of its operations cease in 1982 after the company reported a loss of $1.5 billion due to increased competition from foreign imports made with cheaper and less regulated labor and industry elsewhere in the world, as well as financial obligations to former workers via pensions. The company became profitable again in the late 1980s, but subsequently saw further losses in the 1990s, leading to most of its operations becoming fully shuttered in this decade. The Bethlehem Steel Mill, which had produced steel used in so many iconic 20th Century landmarks in the United States, finally ceased operations in 1995. The company was declared bankruptcy in 2001 owing to its decline and was subsequently dissolved, with its remaining assets being first merged into International Steel Group in 2003, then the Mittal Steel Company in 2005, then ArcelorMittal in 2006, and finally, Cleveland-Cliffs in 2020. The site of the Bethlehem Steel Mill has seen some infill development in the contemporary style, built starting in 2011, with the most notable structures being the ArtsQuest building, the local Public Media Television Station for WLVT, the Levitt Pavilion, an outdoor music venue next to the base of the trestle, and the Wind Creek Casino, Hotel, Outlet Mall, and Event Center at the east end of the site. The new buildings utilize large expanses of glass, concrete, and colored panels on their exteriors, contrasting them from the older mill buildings that surround them, but tie back to the old mill by utilizing exposed steel structures and brickwork on the exteriors, as well as roof monitors to let in natural light to the interiors. The new development has helped give the site a new purpose, though large areas of the former steel mill and its site still sit empty.