Bethlehem Steel Former Headquarters, Pennsylvania

The former Bethlehem Steel headquarters building is located next to the plant (though another tower was later constructed downtown), and is now empty of people, and filled with mold. Bethlehem Steel was perennially the second largest steel company, after U.S. Steel, and around 1917, it was the third largest corporate entity in the USA, after U.S. Steel and Standard Oil. The company started iron making in the 1850s, in the little eastern Pennsylvania town of Bethlehem, where its principal plant grew to immense size. The company expanded with acquisitions, and eventually had nearly 300,000 employees at its mills and shipyards across the country. In 1973, at its post-war peak, it produced 23.7 million tons of raw steel and employed 150,000. In 1975 Japan surpassed the USA in steel production, and the decline of American steel was underway. By 1982, Bethlehem had 67,000 employees. When it filed for bankruptcy in 2001, its remaining 13,000 employees were laid off, and the home plant in Bethlehem closed.