Trip to Bethlehem Steel, Labor Day weekend 2016

The wife and I took a trip to NYC to visit friends over Labor Day weekend. I took advantage of the situation to take a not too out of the way detour to visit the old Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem PA.

Briefly for those who don't know, the old Bethlehem Steel plant is one of the oldest steel mills in the country. It opened circa American Civil War era and closed its doors in 1995. Originally it produced steel rails during the time when railroads were transitioning to steel from iron rails. In the WWI & WWII years it was big in naval shipbuilding.

Instead of razing the mill buildings after it shut down, in recent years the complex has been turned into a museum, arts expo center, and even a concert venue. 5 blast furnaces and many of the old mill structures are still intact. In 2015 they completed the Hoover-Mason Trestle, which is a 2000-foot walkway built on the original high line for the blast furnace structures. You can visit the complex and walk the HMT for no admission fee. Even though the old structures are slowly rusting away and crumbling, it is still a great place to visit for anyone interested in getting an up close inside view of a large steel mill complex.

The beginning of the Hoover Mason Trestle and 3 separate blast furnaces. A fourth is just visible at the left side and the fifth one is further to the left off the photo. At the very right side of the photo is a partial view of the concert venue that has been built here. At night colored lights light up the old blast furnaces as a backdrop to concerts here.

A view of the raw materials storage bins below the high line. Iron ore, limestone, and coke were stocked in these bins and were added to the top of each blast furnace in measured amounts by skip hoist buckets from below.

3 burner furnaces and stacks for one of the blast furnaces to the right. The burner furnaces produced the hot blast air that was fed into the bottom of the blast furnace to create the 3000 degree blast needed to produce molten iron.

A shot of the top of a blast furnace. Seen here is the upcomer and downcomer piping that moved the hot gas from the top of the blast furnace. The hot gas was basically cleaned and then recycled back through the burner furnaces. Also seen here is the top of the skip hoist that fed raw materials (coke, ore, limestone) into the top of the blast furnace.

View down the high line showing the large pipes that carried the hot blast air from the burner furnaces to the blast furnace.

A view of the remaining mill complex from the Hoover Mason Trestle.

Steam powered blower engines that provided the cold blast air to the furnaces which in turn supplied the hot blast air to the blast furnace.

The high line viewed from the side opposite the blast furnaces. Iron ore, limestone, and coke were dumped into the bins below for distribution to each of the five blast furnaces.