Bethlehem Atlantic Works

The Atlantic Works received heavy use during WWII employing up to 1000 men, where they were used to repair Naval and Coast Guard fleet.

They also constructed a new Buzzards Bay and Brenton Reef light towers in a 1961 and 1962 project costing $1.5 million, the main navigational aid for all shipping bound for Cape Cod canal.

On July 13, sailor Anthony McGhee aboard the USS Barry was stabbed in the back twice by a group of 12–20 persons gathered near the corner of Monument and Bunker Hill streets.

However Bethlehem Steel decided to pull out of East Boston less than two years later and called for the closing of the shipyard after they could not find a buyer.

A buyer was eventually found when a group of investors led by the former general manager of a small shipyard in Chelsea agreed to buy the yard and perform an investigation into ways to control violence and crime.

In April 1984 another major race attack happened when a black sailor aboard the USS Valdez was stabbed by a gang of men walking across Maverick Square.

[7] Following this incident the Navy abruptly pulled out with zero notice leaving workers stunned when they showed up on the cold morning of September 21 for work to equipment removed and tools tossed out.

A total of 460 union workers lost their jobs, affecting huge chunks of families in the East Boston area.

In 1985 the land was auctioned off to Massachusetts Port Authority for $10 million, after they doubled their offer to outbid all other industrial developers who were looking to rebuild the yard during the Reagan administration.

These plans were never approved by the city and large chunks of original land today have since been auctioned off to luxury housing along the Boston waterfront.

On the original Bethlehem-Simpson site along Jeffries Point on Marginal Street sits a variety of condo developments, recreational centers, and abandoned lots on what is known as the "Massport Marina".