File:Machine Hall, Old Bethlehem Steel Mill, Bethlehem, PA - 52403101574.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. This former machine hall housed various pieces of mechanical equipment that ran the operations of the mill during the 20th Century. The building features a red brick exterior with two levels of windows, with the upper level of windows being arched, a steel truss roof structure with a series of pop-up roof monitors at the top of the roof, and a quarry tile floor, with the interior of the structure being filled with massive machines, most of which remain in place. The building is missing portions of its exterior walls and roof, but has been stabilized as a ruin to demonstrate the site’s history, with the interior easily visible from a staircase that provides access to the walkway atop the adjacent Hoover-Mason Trestle.