Bethlehem Steel (Bethlehem, PA) | Blast Furnace D

This image shows blast furnace D. It was built in 1954 and blown out for the last time in 1994. It stands approximately 240 feet tall, as measured from the lowest point in the now flooded skip pit. The concrete circle in front of it is from a now demolished Dorr plant, which was a water filtration facility that cleaned dust out of the gas captured from the blast furnace. The dust was eventually dried and sintered back into larger chunks which were recycled back into the blast furnace to make iron. Blast furnaces did not produce steel, but molten iron. The iron had a high, roughly 4 percent, carbon content, which made it strong, but brittle. Steel making furnaces, now demolished, were used to convert the iron into steel, which this particular plant forged and rolled into products as diverse as nuclear reactors to beams for skyscrapers.

- information provided by the National Museum of Industrial History
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Photograph taken in 2009 at the abandoned Bethlehem Steel complex in Bethlehem PA by Matthew Christopher of Abandoned America. The Bethlehem Steel site has since been incorporated into the Steel Stacks and Sands Casino.