File:Bethlehem Visitor Center, Bethlehem, PA - 52402292762.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 former mill consists of multiple brick and stone buildings in varying conditions, most of which date to the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, which were once surrounded by now-removed newer structures that housed much of the operation of the steel mill by the time it closed. The buildings feature relatively simple footprints and rooflines, with many of the stone buildings featuring arched window and door openings and hipped roofs, and the brick buildings featuring rectangular window and door openings, roof monitors, and steel windows. However, large sections of the complex are in a state of serious disrepair, with major roof failure evident on many of the buildings, with large sections of metal and membrane roofing entirely missing, meaning that the buildings are seeing further interior deterioration. Though redevelopment efforts have been ongoing for some time, the buildings of the former steel mill will require extensive work to be adaptively reused for other purposes. In the meantime, many of them remain fenced off, overlooking the new buildings and activities on the site, with many having been built between 2011 and 2015.