Bethlehem steel had many interesting parts throughout its one hundred forty plus years of
providing steel for not only Pennsylvania but also the entire country. This company gave a
lot of people jobs that provided pretty good pay and great retirement plans. Some of the
most interesting structures that still stands today is the blast furnaces, and the guns that
were provided for the battle ships during world war one and two.
The blast furnaces that are still standing today are no longer in use as they are now
surrounded by a casino. The blast furnace was a large tower where hot compressed air was
put in starting from the bottom of the tower. These furnaces were mostly for making iron.
The furnaces are named with letters A-E and were put in alphabetic order, A being the
most western furnace and E being the most eastern furnace. Blast A is the oldest furnace
that dates back to 1904. These blast furnaces were well seen as these were around twenty
stories tall. Most of the steel companies gave there furnaces women’s names. These blast
furnaces should be preserved because they were responsible for creating the world’s
largest single piece of cast iron at that time. These iron pieces were delivered to the U.S
Navy as it completed facilities to provide armor plating.
The second item that should be preserved would be some of the guns that were made for
the ships during world war two. The barrels were sixty feet long and weighed about one