Bethlehem Steel Corporation was one of the largest steel companies in the United States. Its plants manufactured a wide range of steel products, including bars, beams, pipe, plates, rails, rods, sheets, and wire. Company facilities also produced railroad cars and such industrial forgings as turbines for electric generators. Bethlehem owned coal mines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It partly owned iron mines in Minnesota, Canada, and Brazil. The corporation was headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The corporation was established in 1904. Charles M. Schwab, a former president of United States Steel, helped organize Bethlehem Steel and served as its first president. Eugene G. Grace, who started at Bethlehem as a crane operator, succeeded him as president in 1916. Grace became chairman in 1945 and headed the firm until his death in 1960. Under his leadership, Bethlehem developed into one of the world’s largest steel companies. In 2001, after several years of heavy losses due to low steel prices and low production, Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy. In 2003, Bethlehem Steel dissolved, and International Steel Group Inc. purchased the company’s assets.
