|
|
|
|
|
A Brief Chronology of Bethlehem Steel
|
1930 - Bethlehem enters the Pacific Coast market with the acquisition of steel
plants in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. 1931 - Bethlehem
acquires McClintic-Marshall Corp., a major fabricator and erector of bridges and
buildings. During the decade, Bethlehem fabricates the steelwork for such landmark
structures as the Golden Gate Bridge, George Washington Bridge, Rockefeller Plaza,
Waldorf-Astoria, Chicago Merchandise Mart and the U.S. Supreme Court. |
|
1939 - C.M. Schwab dies. Position of chairman of the board is
permanently retired. |
|
1941 - United
States enters World War II, and Bethlehem operations shift to all-out war production of
steel plate for ships and tanks, structural steel for defense plants and forgings for
guns, shells and aircraft engines. Bethlehem's 15 shipyards build 1,121 ships, more
than any other shipbuilder in World War II. At peak of production, Bethlehem employs
almost 300,000 people, 180,000 of them in shipbuilding.
1945 - E.G. Grace elected chairman. Bethlehem begins programs to
expand capacity to meet post-war demand for steel. |
|
1957 - Bethlehem employs 165,000 people, a post-World-War-II high. 1958
- Bethlehem's annual steelmaking capacity reaches 23 million tons, almost double the 12.9
million tons of the mid-1940s.
1959 - Homer Reasearch Laboratories open to produce new products such
as quenched and tempered plate, tin-free steel and new generations of coated steel sheets.
1960 - Arthur B. Homer, head of Bethlehem's WWII shipbuilding program,
is elected chairman.
1962 -
Bethlehem announces it will build a major integrated steel plant in Burns Harbor, Ind.,
the most ambitious single project in its history to produce sheet and plate steel for the
fast-growing midwest market. Today, Burns Harbor is Bethlehem's largest, most efficient
plant with 5.3 million tons of capacity.
1964 - Edmund F. Martin is elected chairman. The Burns Harbor plant
begins production, and Bethlehem's first basic oxygen furnaces begin steelmaking at
Lackawanna. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
