When Bethlehem Steel and advocates for preservation of the Central Dunes crossed swords in Congress in the early 1960s, the steel company won. Two key arguments used by Bethlehem in their successful campaign were increased national security from the production of American steel, and the creation of well-paid jobs in a field that was then dominated by the United Steelworkers union. Two arguments advanced by the people opposed to the project were that the mill could have easily been located directly east of Gary, in a less sensitive and strategic ecological zone, and that large infrastructure projects, which would amount to a tax subsidy, were needed to construct a mill in this area.