Bethlehem Steel
From American juggernaut to bankruptcy.
Happy Wednesday!
I hope you are well.
What began in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1860 producing iron rails for the Lehigh Valley Railroad grew during a period when the United States was rapidly industrializing and expanding its rail network. The company quickly moved into steel production in the late 1800s, a time marked by the rise of giants like Carnegie Steel and the emergence of the U.S. as the world’s leading steel producer. By WWII, Bethlehem Steel was a pillar of the wartime industrial mobilization, eventually building a ship per day along with tanks and artillery as part of the massive national effort that made the U.S. the most badass military force in the world.
After the war in the 1950s–60s, it was a top U.S. firm famed for its wide‑flange beams used in the Empire State Building and eventually the Golden Gate Bridge, as America entered a postwar construction boom and large‑scale public works and skyscrapers reshaped the national landscape. At its height, Bethlehem Steel was the second‑largest steelmaker in the country and a symbol of U.S. industrial strength.
Starting in the 1970s–2000, intense foreign competition from Japan and later South Korea and China combined with Chinese steel dumping and the company’s failure to modernize its plants during a global shift toward mini‑mills and more efficient production, laid this behemoth down. The failure of this giant, along with 24 other steelmakers between 1998–2001, forced a massive consolidation of the U.S. steel industry as globalization reshaped manufacturing and free‑trade agreements opened markets to lower‑cost producers abroad.
The loss of steel manufacturing was the beginning of the broader “China shock” in the U.S., as industries across the country experienced factory closures, offshoring, and import surges that transformed entire regions—particularly in the Midwest and Northeast. Today, we are faced with the question: do we print the money to reshore, or purchase all of our military equipment from China, as the long‑term consequences of deindustrialization continue to shape national policy and economic strategy?
Thank you for being part of this.
Casey Donaldson