From Messy Nessy Chic, February 8, 2023:
Some American companies are such a part of our everyday lives, they’re taken for granted, the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Google for example. But there is another company that although it can be seen everywhere, no-one notices. Even more mysteriously, the company no longer exists. But walk through any American city, or picture its greatest manmade landmarks and the chances are it was made with Bethlehem Steel. For over a century, the star of Bethlehem Steel burned bright, becoming one of the world’s largest producers of steel. Based in a small city in Pennsylvania, the company built the backbone of America; from the Chrysler Building to the Empire State Building, the Hoover Dam, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Centre, the Golden Gate Bridge, even the prison island of Alcatraz were just some of the iconic structures made with Bethlehem Steel.
By 1940, a staggering 80% of New York’s famous skyline was built with Bethlehem Steel. But by the 1990s, the unthinkable happened, and this titan of American industry went bankrupt. The blast furnaces closed, taking most of the city of Bethlehem’s fortunes with it. One winter’s day we went to visit the haunting ruins of the city that built America....
....MUCH MORE, some of the pictures have to be seen to be believed.
Because we take a more prosaic view of things, here's one of the illustrations we used on the moneymaking opportunities of war:
....the "War Brides", companies that would profit
from WW I. GM fit into both categories. One of the big movers of the
1914-1918 bull market was Bethlehem Steel whose stock traded through
1913 with a desultory $30-handle and went to $600 in 1915:
