Bethlehem: Moravian Founders and the Steel That Built America
Bethlehem was founded on Christmas Eve 1741 by Moravian settlers from Saxony who named the settlement after the biblical town. The Moravian community established one of the earliest industrial complexes in the American colonies along the Monocacy Creek, including a tannery, a waterworks, and Pennsylvania's first pumped public water system. The Moravian Archives downtown holds one of the most complete records of any American religious community.
Bethlehem Steel, founded in 1857, grew into the second-largest steel producer in the United States and supplied the steel for the Golden Gate Bridge, the Chrysler Building, and most of the ships of the U.S. Navy in World War II. The Bethlehem plant employed over 30,000 workers at its peak. The company declared bankruptcy in 2001 and ceased all steelmaking by 2003. The blast furnaces and rolling mills still stand on the south side of the Lehigh River as part of the SteelStacks arts and entertainment campus, where outdoor stages host Musikfest every August.
Lehigh University occupies a hillside campus above the former steel works and enrolls roughly 7,000 students. Moravian University, founded in 1742, is among the oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. Musikfest, a ten-day free music festival, draws over a million visitors annually and ranks as one of the largest free music festivals in the country.
Coverage of Bethlehem on Escortservice.com is limited to catalog entries for escort websites serving the area. Escortservice.com is a directory. Bookings, verifications, and mediation fall outside what the site does. Users must be 21 years old or older.
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Bethlehem was founded on Christmas Eve 1741 by Moravian settlers from Saxony who named the settlement after the biblical town. The Moravian community established one of the earliest industrial complexes in the American colonies along the Monocacy Creek, including a tannery, a waterworks, and Pennsylvania's first pumped public water system. The Moravian Archives downtown holds one of the most complete records of any American religious community.
Bethlehem Steel, founded in 1857, grew into the second-largest steel producer in the United States and supplied the steel for the Golden Gate Bridge, the Chrysler Building, and most of the ships of the U.S. Navy in World War II. The Bethlehem plant employed over 30,000 workers at its peak. The company declared bankruptcy in 2001 and ceased all steelmaking by 2003. The blast furnaces and rolling mills still stand on the south side of the Lehigh River as part of the SteelStacks arts and entertainment campus, where outdoor stages host Musikfest every August.
Lehigh University occupies a hillside campus above the former steel works and enrolls roughly 7,000 students. Moravian University, founded in 1742, is among the oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. Musikfest, a ten-day free music festival, draws over a million visitors annually and ranks as one of the largest free music festivals in the country.
Coverage of Bethlehem on Escortservice.com is limited to catalog entries for escort websites serving the area. Escortservice.com is a directory. Bookings, verifications, and mediation fall outside what the site does. Users must be 21 years old or older.
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