\n Wherever you go in this handsome city, the past is never far away. Settled by Moravians in the mid-1700s, it was made famous two centuries later by the booming steel industry, which attracted thousands of immigrants from around the world to work in the mills, build churches and import their colorful food and culture \u2013 including polka music.\n <\/p>\n
\n Bethlehem Steel ceased production here 31 years ago, doomed by cheaper competition from overseas. But Billy Joel\u2019s hit 1982 song<\/a> about a dying steel town no longer applies. After some lean years, Bethlehem has rebounded, buoyed by a picturesque Main Street, a thriving festival scene, its appeal as a twinkly Christmastime destination and its status as home to the United States\u2019 newest UNESCO World Heritage site.\n <\/p>\n \n Bethlehem lies in the Lehigh Valley, a fast-growing slice of eastern Pennsylvania roughly 90 minutes by car from both New York City and Philadelphia. It sits halfway between neighboring Allentown to the west and nearby Easton, a bustling smaller city on the Delaware River\u2019s border with New Jersey.\n <\/p>\n \n Split by the Lehigh River and punctuated by rolling hills and farmland, the Lehigh Valley is sometimes called a microcosm of the US for its mix of urban and rural cultures and its bellwether politics. The valley hosts wineries, acclaimed restaurants<\/a>, America\u2019s oldest continuous open-air farmer\u2019s market<\/a> and the nation\u2019s largest free music festival, a 10-day event<\/a> each August that attracts more than a million people.\n <\/p>\n \n And Bethlehem, at its center, feels like heartland America at its best: industrious, unassuming and friendly.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cA lot of people foresaw the potential of this area, and they didn\u2019t want it to die with the steel\u201d industry, says Lawrence, 32, whose Lehigh Valley roots go back six generations. \u201cI\u2019m seeing a lot of positivity \u2026 as we continue to progress into the 21st century. So, yeah, I think it\u2019s a nice place to check out. There\u2019s so much to do. I\u2019ve never heard anyone say there\u2019s nothing to do around here.\u201d\n <\/p>\n MORE AMERICA’S BEST TOWNS TO VISIT 2026<\/p>\n \n Few places in America evoke a specific industry more than Bethlehem, whose steel town identity shaped the city for most of the last century. Founded in the 1800s as an iron company, Bethlehem Steel produced rails for the nation\u2019s expanding railroad network and eventually became the second-largest steel producer in the country after Pittsburgh\u2019s U.S. Steel.\n <\/p>\n \n Steel from Bethlehem transformed skylines across the country and helped build an impressive roster of American landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Madison Square Garden, the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge. The company also became a key contributor to US war efforts, famously building 1,127 ships for the armed forces during World War II, by which time Bethlehem Steel was the largest private shipbuilder in the world.\n <\/p>\n \n At its peak in the 1940s the company employed some 30,000 workers in Bethlehem alone \u2013 roughly half the population of the city. Its crumbling former complex sits on the south bank of the Lehigh River, down the hill from Lehigh University.\n <\/p>\n \n Much of this story is on display at the city\u2019s National Museum of Industrial History<\/a>, located in a former Bethlehem Steel repair shop. The museum holds hundreds of artifacts and machines, including a working steam engine.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIf you talked to one of the old guys who worked here, he\u2019d tell you that the US won World War I and World War II because of Bethlehem Steel,\u201d said museum docent Mahesh Vyas, who spent 36 years with the company as a research engineer. An archival photo in the museum shows Vyas sitting at a primitive computer. \u201cBethlehem Steel was Bethlehem,\u201d he added. \u201cIt was a very good job.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n For a more immersive experience people can tour the rusting hulks of the company\u2019s towering blast furnaces, which for decades heated molten iron ore to 3,000 degrees to produce steel girders, ship hulls and other industrial products.\n <\/p>\n \n Visitors aren\u2019t allowed to get too close to the plant\u2019s ruins for safety reasons. But an elevated walkway, completed in 2015, runs for 1,650 feet alongside the furnaces, with signage at various points explaining how the steel was made. Known as the Hoover-Mason Trestle<\/a> and similar to New York City\u2019s High Line, the landscaped walkway runs 46 feet above the ground over a former railway that once ferried iron ore to the blast furnaces.\n <\/p>\n \n The long-term future of the abandoned plant is unclear, however. As one guide explained on a recent tour, many of the remnants of the steel plant are rusting away. \u201cSee it while you can,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n For now, however, the jagged skeleton of the former plant rises 230 feet and dominates the Bethlehem skyline. The adjoining property has been redeveloped as SteelStacks<\/a>, a cultural space that hosts festivals, concerts and other outdoor events, all with the blast furnaces \u2013 illuminated at night \u2013 serving as a unique backdrop.\n <\/p>\n \n And three decades after production shut down for good, Bethehem\u2019s steel legacy endures across the valley. A mile to the east of SteelStacks sits Wind Creek<\/a>, a cavernous casino, outlet mall and event center whose sign is mounted<\/a> on a former Bethlehem Steel ore crane. And the local minor league baseball team, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs<\/a>, take their name from \u201cpig iron,\u201d a product used to make steel.\n <\/p>\n \n When it comes to long-running Bethlehem history, though, steelworkers have nothing on the Moravians, early Protestants with 15th-century roots in what is now the Czech Republic. Moravian missionaries from Germany established a settlement here in 1741, naming it Bethlehem during a service on Christmas Eve.\n <\/p>\n America’s Best Towns to Visit 2026: Bethlehem<\/p>\n \n Enterprising and ahead of their time, the early Moravians built colonial America\u2019s first pumped municipal water system and supported education for all, regardless of gender or economic status.\n <\/p>\n \n The Moravians\u2019 civilizing influence helped make Bethlehem a refuge for colonists traveling from New York and Philadelphia \u2014 including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette, who spent several months here recuperating after being wounded in a Revolutionary War battle.\n <\/p>\n \n The Moravian community in Bethlehem has endured for almost three centuries and spawned Moravian University, a private four-year school. The settlement\u2019s historical significance was affirmed in 2024 when UNESCO added it, along with three Moravian settlements in Europe, to its list of World Heritage sites.\n <\/p>\n \n Some of the Moravians\u2019 early homes and houses of worship remain, along with a colonial industrial quarter that includes a mill, a tannery and a blacksmith\u2019s shop. UNESCO describes the cluster of well-kept stone buildings as \u201cthe first permanent, best-preserved, and most important Moravian Church settlement in North America.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Today\u2019s visitors can tour the Moravian Museum, housed in Bethlehem\u2019s oldest building, attend services at the 1806 Central Moravian Church or stroll through the Moravian cemetery, known as God\u2019s Acre, whose uniformly flat headstones symbolize equality before God.\n <\/p>\n A festive Main Street<\/p>\n \n Bethlehem\u2019s Moravian settlement also straddles the city\u2019s Main Street, which has become a destination in its own right. Lined with restored buildings, cafes and unique shops, it was just named the No. 1 main street in America<\/a> by readers of USA Today.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a Main Street like it,\u201d said Lauren Kachmarsky, a heritage concierge at Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re very dedicated to preserving it \u2026 to keeping that colonial and Victorian charm.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Its anchor is the Hotel Bethlehem<\/a>, a grand, century-old establishment that underwent a major restoration in the late 1990s, reinvigorating the city\u2019s downtown. The walls of its elegant lobby are lined with photos of the hotel\u2019s many famous guests, including Amelia Earhart, Winston Churchill and Muhammad Ali.\n <\/p>\n \n The surrounding blocks feature everything from a brewery taproom<\/a> to a European home decor shop<\/a> to a tapas eatery<\/a> to a venerable bar & grill<\/a> to the Moravian Book Shop<\/a>, which dates to 1745 and bills itself as America\u2019s oldest bookseller.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a good mix of cultures,\u201d said Malik Lovell, manager of Donegal Square<\/a>, a Main Street store selling items from Ireland and the UK. \u201cAnd it sounds corny \u2026 but it\u2019s a super tight-knit community.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n During the holidays, the street becomes a festive winter wonderland in keeping with Bethlehem\u2019s nickname as the \u201cChristmas City.\u201d By early November, visitors encounter elaborate sidewalk light displays, horse-drawn carriage rides and traditional, European-style outdoor markets \u2013 including one at SteelStacks.\n <\/p>\n \n And an enormous illuminated star<\/a>, evoking the biblical story of Jesus\u2019 birth, shines over the city each night from a 900-foot hilltop across the river from downtown.\n <\/p>\n ![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784045618_889_03-gettyimages-2182405977.jpg\")
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