Gratitude Friday 5 23 25 Remembering the Last Pour at the BSC Home Plant

I grew up in a steel town, in a steel family. Every single facet of the world I was raised in was influenced by the second largest steel company in America. The name of the company was the name of the town, Bethlehem. Our parents worked there, our neighbors worked there, we played in parks that were built with donations from the company, and we wiped off the red dust on the windowsills of our homes knowing that that dust meant prosperity. We were taught early that our steel built the nation we were raised in. The Chrysler building, Liberty Ships in WWII, the guns of our biggest battleships and the Golden Gate bridge. These jobs were tough. molten metal, cranes, heat and all kinds of things that were really dangerous were the daily work world of those who raised us. Sons followed fathers and grandfathers pursuing blue collar jobs that furnished the good life well beyond what such a job pays in our world now. You worked hard and got the American dream.

My father had one of the easier white-collar jobs. Trained as a civil engineer, he worked for the company, the Bethlehem Steel Corporation (BSC) from 1954 to 1996. Those final years were the bitter end to one of the most iconoclastic companies of the century. A company that by the end of WWII was launching a ship a day to support the free world. He worked in fabrication and later moved to the law department. The second half of his career focused on defending lawsuits as a subject matter expert because those Liberty Ships the company built in WWII were made with asbestos. Years later when medical problems arose, the asbestos making companies were long gone so BSC was the company to sue. It was one of the many things that dragged down a great American company.

I am so grateful that I was raised in that era in the place that I was in the way that I was. It was not a perfect town, but the ethos of pride in building a great nation was part of the place and time. There is no separating it from my formative process. Some of my earliest memories are of the grand Martin Tower, which was supposed to be the first of two identical towers that rose up over my neighborhood. Those days in the early 70s were the highwater mark. A few years later, the “end of the steel” was something we spoke about in hushed voices as the late 70s and early 80s unfolded and the company began mass layoffs and plant closings.  

I started thinking about all of this recently as a historical page started posting the last days of the local plant. It all ended 30 years ago at 10:15 AM on November 18th, 1995, with last pour of molten metal. On this link is a number of photographs from that day, including the one on the banner of this post. An American flag was suspended from the ceiling and “God Bless America” echoed over the loudspeakers. The furnace was charged with the massive last yield of the blast furnaces, which pushed the final production at the plant two hours later than planned. And with that, the end of an era. There is a video of the last cast here and one of what it was like to work in the plant here.

It has been half of my life since that day. “The Steel” is not the heartbeat of the town anymore. The plant is now in part a casino, which is a matter of irony for me as perhaps those buildings are still a symbol of America, but in a far less flattering way. We do not make stuff anymore; money is made through spectacle and leveraging vices. We live in such different times. In my memory there are those blue flames over the plant, and the flash of light and sound as a pour could be seen in the night sky. Those were some special days.

It was a different time and place. People were proud to work at the steel and there was a strong sense of community. One could ruminate as to what dragged the company down, it was many things and if one sought to assign blame there was plenty enough to go around for everyone, from management to workers to government, and even things well beyond those factors. Me, I was just grateful to grow up in Bethlehem in that era and to have seen with my own eyes how it contributed to our society. It is part of who I am.

It was part of all of us who grew up in that time and place.

What are you grateful for today?