Walk Over History: $10M Bethlehem Steel Promenade Planned

In its heyday, the Hoover-Mason Trestle carried tons of raw materials in rail cars from the Bethlehem Steel ore yard to massive blast furnaces where the steel that built the battleships that won World War II and the skyscrapers and bridges that changed the landscape of America was forged.

On Wednesday, city officials and private stakeholders announced a $10 million project to breathe new life into the 2,000-foot-long historic trestle railway.

The plan is to build a several-stories-high pedestrian promenade that will allow for further historic interpretation of the former Bethlehem Steel complex and passive recreation.

Public bonds obtained by the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority through Tax Increment Financing approved in 2010 to pay for infrastructure improvements at SteelStacks will provide the funding.

Construction is expected to get under way in May and be completed by June 2014. Boyle Construction has been hired to oversee project construction. About 200 subcontractors are expected to be hired.

The trestle, which is currently owned by Sands Bethworks, a partnership of the casino and other real estate investors, will be conveyed to the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority for public ownership.

The project is being compared by some to New York’s High Line Park, a 1½-mile-long section of abandoned elevated New York Central Railroad line that runs through the Lower West Side of Manhattan, which was converted to a passive park in 2009.

But Mayor John Callahan said this promenade will be uniquely Bethlehem, offering vistas of the Southside that few have seen before.

For example, one of the features of the promenade will be a cantilevered deck that extends out over the Bethlehem Steel flywheel—the site of Wednesday’s news conference—to provide a view of the landmark St. Michael’s Cemetery, where many of the city’s immigrant steelworkers were buried, said Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, one of the project designers from Wallace Roberts and Todd.

The Philadelphia-based architectural and urban planning firm also designed the Levitt Pavilion and other plazas at SteelStacks.

“They got it,” Callahan said of the firm’s trestle repurposing design. “They really nailed it.”

In all, there will be 35,000 square feet of walkable space atop the trestle, which dates back to the late 1800s, according to Steve Donches, the executive director of the National Museum of Industrial History.

The museum is one of the organizations in the Bethlehem Heritage Coalition, which is providing assistance in developing the historic interpretation of the Mason-Hoover Trestle, which was named for its designers.

The new walking promenade will follow the elevated rail line from the Sands Casino Resort Hotel, past the PBS39 building, the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks to the Bethlehem Visitor Center at the converted 1863 Stockhouse, providing a new pedestrian connection between all of these venues.

The path also sidles along the length of the massive, landmark Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces, bringing visitors to the redeveloped arts and tourism site as close to them as they have ever been able to come.

Along the way, there will be three entrances to make the trestle handicap-accessible, utilizing elevators or switchback ramps. Among the accent pieces planned for the entrances to the trestle are some of the original rail cars that carried iron ore to the Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces, Bunster-Ossa said.