The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steel and shipbuilding company that for much of the 20th century was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. The company's roots trace to 1857 with the establishment of the Bethlehem Iron Company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem Steel was formed in 1904 through the merger of the earlier companies, and existed through the decline of American steel manufacturing during the 1970s until its bankruptcy in 2001 and final dissolution in 2003.