Bethlehem, PA

 April 22, 2025

We had a full day sightseeing.  First we went to the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, PA, the site of Bethlehem Steel Mill.

This is a map of all the plants of Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem.  I was told that there were over 250 buildings.

The building that houses the museum was the old electrical repair shop.

Corliss Pumping Engine.  It was huge!  The museum is part of the Smithsonian and when it was opened they moved some of the industrial machines here.

I never realized that cement and concrete were different.  Evidently so!

Being a quilter I'm interested in the textiles exhibit.

Narrow Ribbon Loom

Braiding Machine

I took a video of this as John turned it but I can't upload videos to the blog.

Jacquard Repeating Machine
They used punch cards to make the designs.  A precursor to the computer.

Jacquard Card Lacer
More punch cards.

Jacquard Piano Card Punch

Warper

Cutaway of Jacquard Head
There were a lot of moving pieces!

Winder

Jacquard Loom
Notice the punch cards.

Bethlehem Steel built 1,127 ships of 19 different classes during World War II.

Armor Plate

Pretty impressive.

After we left the museum we went to the Hoover Mason Trestle.  It was the rail line to take the materials to make steel to the blast furnace.  Now it's a walkway.

A huge plant that just seemed to keep going.  Now a lot of rust.

One of the cars to take the materials to the blast furnace.

It was a beautiful day the Lord gave us!

Blast furnace diagram.

The materials go up the chute and into blast furnace.  There were five of these along the walkway.

They basically used the same method as Cornwall Furnace.  But to see all this they've come a long way!  I'm sure this was a noisy and dirty place.

After leaving we ran some errands and went home.  It was a long day but I got my 5,000 steps!

One more tour tomorrow before we will be...

Roving on...

For this is what the LORD says, He who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and not create if as a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited): "I am the LORD, and there is no one else."  Isaiah 45:1