Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites is proud to announce the summer hours of their tour entitled Along the Lehigh River: The Rise and Fall of Bethlehem Steel. The tours will run daily at 1:15 from the newly restored 1863 Stock House Visitor Center.

The 60 minute walking tour explores the site of the former Bethlehem Steel plant and shares stories of the men and women who worked in the plant and in the corporate offices until the blast furnaces shut down in 1995, the end of steel making in Bethlehem. Bethlehem Steel in its glory days was the second largest steel producer in the US and the largest shipbuilder in the world.

A certified Historic Bethlehem Museum guide with hard hat and brass check will lead visitors on a one mile walk through the most historic sections of the plant and the newest renaissance taking place with the ArtsQuest Center and PBS 39 studio. While on this industrial site, visitors will find out how steel was made, how the blast furnaces work, and economic impact on the community.

Visitors will discover why Bethlehem Steel was called the “arsenal of democracy” and and their impact on the allied effort in World War I and World War II and nuisances such as why a new steelworker had a red X on his hard hat.

At one time, the plant covered 1,800 acres, stretched 4 miles along the Lehigh River, and employed as many as 30,000 workers. Some of the original buildings remain on the site and housed 900 overhead electrical cranes and about 400 miles of railroad track. Taking the visitor back in time, they learn the average wage for a worker in 1900 was $1.50 per day and plant ran 7 days per week 365 days per year.

Visitors will also hear about the development of South Bethlehem from Moravian farmlands in the 1700s to a bustling community in the late 1800s to current art and architectural complex today.

Please go to to www.historicbethlem.org or call the Visitor Center at 610.691.6055 for more information and/or to order tickets.

Historic Bethlehem is a not-for-profit institution that brings to life three centuries of American history. Historic Bethlehem tells the story of a small town of great influence, home to some of our nation’s earliest settlers, to America’s first municipal water pumping system, and to one of the world’s greatest industrial companies. Historic Bethlehem is located in Eastern Pennsylvania, only a 1.5 hour drive from Philadelphia to the North and 2 hours west of New York City. Historic Bethlehem is an Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. For more information please call 610-691-6055 or visit www.historicbethlehem.org.