The long building in front of you is the No. 2 Machine Shop. Built in 1890, this was one of the largest industrial buildings in the world, stretching for nearly a third of a mile. Workers in this shop milled and drilled Bethlehem's steel into finished products and parts including weapons, ammunition, and ships.
Wartime meant big business for Bethlehem Steel. When the first World War broke out in 1914, Bethlehem enjoyed record profits as it produced armaments, first for embattled European countries, then for the US Army and Navy. During World War II, the company saw even greater productivity and profits, with a record high workforce of over 30,000-including several thousand women. With all plants devoted to wartime production, Bethlehem Steel was the largest single supplier for the Allied Forces. The company produced one naval ship a day in 1943.
"...The men resented the women coming in to take their places. I had a man tell me one time, 'I don't ever expect to get my job back when I come back.' He said, 'These women are so good.'
- Nellie Ross
Matron at Bethlehem Steel during WWII
[Photo captions, from left to right, read]
· The main turret for the battleship USS Pennsylvania, commissioned in 1916, was assembled at Bethlehem Steel from several pieces
of forged, machined, and hardened armor plate.
· Naval guns are assembled in the No.2 Machine Shop in 1918.
· Coastal defense gun forgings leave the plant for Watervliet Arsenal in New York State.
· As the men enlisted to fight abroad, women stepped in to fill a growing labor shortage. Thousands of women took jobs at the Steel during both World Wars, working as plant patrol, matrons (supervisors), sweepers, welders, crane operators, and inspectors.
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