Bessemer

Bessemer sits southwest of Birmingham in Alabama and stretches across flat to gently rolling terrain with residential neighborhoods grouped around former industrial zones. The city follows a grid pattern with older brick buildings along the main street and newer commercial and residential zones on the outskirts.

A land company founded the town in 1887 as a planned industrial city to take advantage of iron ore deposits and railway connections. Steel mills grew rapidly and shaped the local economy for over a century until many plants closed in the late 1900s.

The name honors a British inventor who developed a method for steel production. This industrial legacy still shows in street names and the layout of older residential blocks around former plant sites.

Interstate highways and a main road cross the city from east to west while smaller streets run north and south. Visitors can walk around central blocks but will need a car to reach outlying areas.

A restaurant downtown opened its doors over a century ago and still serves meals in the same building. Some of the older city blocks preserve street lamps and sidewalk slabs from the early steel production era.

Location: Jefferson County

Inception: 1887

Elevation above the sea: 158 m

Shares border with: Birmingham

Address: Bessemer, AL, USA

Website: https://bessemeral.org

GPS coordinates: 33.40178,-86.95444

Latest update: December 19, 2025 08:34