America was once a great industrial nation, with steel mills, factories, and with railroads that reached to every corner of every state. But now that day is past. The steel mills and the factories have moved to other countries where the labor is cheaper. The railroads have been all but replaced by trucks that carry the goods, and by airplanes that move people faster and further.

Industrial archeology is the study of the remains left behind by this gradual transition. Some industrial sites are preserved for their historic value. Some won't be torn down until the land they occupy is needed. And some are so monstrous that there is not much you can do but just leave them there.

So here we are in Pennsylvania. A wrong turn has brought us to an intersection where one of the signs points to Bethlehem. We decided to let fate direct us and went to see the steel mills.

Well, we found them alright, and they were huge, going on for what seemed like a mile. But ghostly and deserted.

These mills made the steel used to build the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate bridge. Once a proud symbol of our nation's might, now abandoned.

I found a vantage point in a cemetery on a hill overlooking the mills. The picture has been worked on in the computer, most notably to give the sky a gray appearance, somehow suitable for this sad landscape.