Accidents at The Point: 1990 Explosion
By Clair Volkening The Explosion In a previous post, I recounted the story of an explosion at Sparrows Point in 1891 which killed four steelworkers. That explosion was one of countless accidents over the mill’s history that injured or killed steelworkers. Now, we move one-hundred years into the future, to 1990, to tell the story […]
Read moreFamily of Steel: The Strasbaughs
Editor’s Note: Three generations of the Strasbaugh family worked in the steel mill at Sparrows Point. Gloria Strasbaugh, the wife of the third John Strasbaugh, answered some questions about her family in an email interview. In the edited excerpts* below, she recalls her family’s history and their involvement with the steel mill. Who were the […]
Read moreAccidents At the Point: 1891 Explosion
By Clair Volkening On Sunday, December 8, 1891, four men were killed and five suffered injuries after an explosion in blast furnace B at Sparrows Point. The night before the explosion, workers had begun “blowing out,” or shutting down, the furnace so that repairs could be made to the firebrick walls and the furnace pipes […]
Read moreViews of Sparrows Point: Gordon Davis
Gordon Davis worked in many different positions during his almost 40 years at Sparrows Point. He began his career in the coke ovens two weeks out of high school, in 1974. A Baltimore native and second-generation steelworker, Davis shared these photographs ranging from the 1950s (taken by his father) through the late 1980s. Click on […]
Read moreViews of Sparrows Point: Early Steelmaking
Bob Crandell—whose management career at Beth Steel and its successors at Sparrows Point spanned 40+ years—recently lent the BMI a spectacular 1892 photo album. These photographs show steelmaking operations at Sparrows Point just five years after the land was acquired by the Pennsylvania Steel Company and only one year after the first steel was made […]
Read moreVoices of Sparrows Point
By Deb Weiner and Auni Gelles Since we launched the Bethlehem Steel Legacy Project in January 2019, BMI staff have sought first-person accounts from individuals who worked at Bethlehem Steel, lived in or around Sparrows Point, or were related to employees. We’ve attended community meetings at Tradepoint Atlantic and around the Dundalk area; held story […]
Read moreBuilding a Community Collection
By Beth Maloney and Auni Gelles The Covid-19 pandemic has changed not only the nature of work for so many across our city but also the ways we are connecting, communicating, and staying close to one another. Even though the BMI is closed, we are working remotely and thinking about how to adapt our existing […]
Read moreFixing the Problem with Iron
An overview of industrial steelmaking – by Jack Burkert Editor’s note: For another look at the steelmaking process, check out “Steel in the Making,” a brochure published by Bethlehem Steel and now housed in the BMI’s archives. The railroads had a problem. From their earliest days in the 19th century, the rails their trains […]
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