Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna

Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna. The Industrial Heritage Trail. Lackawanna Steel continued to grow throughout the early 1900s. However, the steel plant fell on considerably hard financial times in 1918 and 1919, coupled with violent worker strikes and demonstrations for better working conditions and benefits. The plant briefly returned to profitability in 1921, but the lack of investment in new technology came to heavily affect the plant's ability to compete with more modern plants, and the company posted large deficits in 1922. , On May 11, 1922, Lackawanna Steel announced it had agreed to be purchased by Bethlehem Steel, in a merger which would create a billion dollar company. The purchase price was $60 million dollars, probably less than half of what the company was worth. , Bethlehem Steel capitalized on their cheap purchase price of the aging plant and invested $40 million dollars to bring the facility up to modern standards, gearing its production to the burgeoning automobile market. As a result of this investment and Bethlehem's considerable industry connections, the plant boomed in production during the 1920s, becoming highly profitable and managing to maintain its operations through the Great Depression years of the 1930s. , At the outbreak of World War II, the plant was in prime condition to supply steel of all types to American industrial centers. By 1943, the steel plant regained the title of world's largest steel production facility, employing over 20,000 workers on around the clock shifts. , Hamburg Turnpike at Gate 1 of Bethlehem Steel, August 7, 1952, 3:30 P.M. Image Source: Steel Plant Museum of WNY. , Steel Plant Museum of WNY