Odds improve for saving steel history

History buffs practically salivate at the thought of being able to explore the massive ruins of Bethlehem Steel Corp., the industrial behemoth that armed hundreds of U.S. warships, provided the raw material for the Golden Gate Bridge and transformed the New York skyline.

Thanks to an $800-million casino complex rising on the site, the dream that has eluded preservationists for more than a decade is now within reach: the ability to tell the story of America’s industrial history through the prism of one of its most important companies.

An estimated 5 million people a year are expected to come to south Bethlehem to gamble and shop once Las Vegas Sands Corp. opens the doors of its slot machine casino in spring 2009. The visitors could help provide the economic shot in the arm necessary to stabilize and maintain many of the historic buildings, making them suitable for public display.

No one knows how much it will cost to preserve the Bethlehem Steel story, or who will agree to pay for what. But Sands has already saved 20 buildings from the wrecking ball, and those who are passionate about “the Steel” say that some kind of public access is a certainty.

“It’s a terrific opportunity,” said Howard Gillette, a history professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. “Bethlehem tells the whole story of industrialization in America, and deindustrialization.”

Gillette heads the university’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities, or MARCH, which won a $45,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities this year to develop a blueprint for the preservation and historical interpretation of the Bethlehem Steel works.

With so many buildings still standing, “there’s an enormous amount of interpretation that can be done. You can’t find that anywhere else in the world,” said Amey Senape, who manages the Lehigh Valley Industrial Heritage Coalition, an alliance of community groups that is helping coordinate preservation efforts at Bethlehem Steel.

Sands has consistently expressed support for the goal of telling the Steel’s story. The company has dedicated the oldest building on the site, the circa-1860s Stock House, to the city for use as a visitors center.

Sands officials were unavailable for comment this week. The company said in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission: “The goal of Las Vegas Sands Corp. is to bring life back to this historic site, while respecting the fascinating and valuable legacy that it represents for the people of Pennsylvania and the world.”

Originally a producer of iron rails for railroads, the sprawling plant along the Lehigh River began making steel in 1873, and by the 1880s it was producing weapons and armor for the U.S. Navy. At its height during World War II, Bethlehem Steel was the nation’s top military contractor, and the plant, which took up 20% of the city’s land mass, employed more than 31,000 workers.

By the close of the 20th century, however, labor costs and foreign competition had helped spell the demise of the Steel and many other domestic producers. Steel making in Bethlehem ended on Nov. 18, 1995.