Friday I headed to Allentown to hang out with my brother, Brent. He pastors Seibert E. C. Church, so we decided to explore the building and especially the tall tower.

Here is a panoramic view of Allentown. The tall building in the center is the PPL building. View large version (680Kb, 3000 x 600 pixels)

After we looked around the church, Brent took me to see the now defunct Bethlehem Steel plant. An interesting Fortune Magazine article describes it as the "builder of 1,127 ships during World War II and of the Golden Gate Bridge, the supplier of metal for every bridge and tunnel that takes you from New Jersey into Manhattan, and for much of the skyline you see when you get there". I enjoy exploring abandoned places and seeing how nature takes over when we let something go. At the peak of production in the 1950's, Bethlehem Steel was No. 8 on the Fortune 500 list and the 163-acre plant employed more than 167,000 people.