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Bethlehem lies in the geographic center of the Lehigh Valley, a metropolitan region of 731 square miles (1,893 km2) with a population of 861,899 people as of the 2020 census that is Pennsylvania's third most populous metropolitan area and the 68th most populated metropolitan area in the U. S. Bethlehem borders Allentown to its west and is 48 mile (77 km) north of Philadelphia and 72 mile (116 km) west of New York City. There are four sections to the city: central Bethlehem, the south side, the east side, and the west side. Each of these sections blossomed at different times in the city's development and each contains areas recognized under the National Register of Historic Places. Norfolk Southern Railway's Lehigh Line, formerly the main line of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, runs through Bethlehem heading east to Easton and across the Delaware River to Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The Norfolk Southern Railway's Reading Line runs through Bethlehem and west to Allentown and Reading. Bethlehem has a long historical relationship with the celebration of Christmas. The city was christened as Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 1741 by Nicolaus Zinzendorf, a Moravian bishop. In 1747, Bethlehem was the first U. S. city to feature a decorated Christmas tree. On December 7, 1937, at a grand ceremony during the Great Depression, the city adopted the nickname Christmas City USA in a large ceremony. It is one of several Lehigh Valley locations, including Egypt, Emmaus, Jordan Creek, and Nazareth, whose names were inspired by locations in the Bible.

Prior to European settlements, the areas around present day Bethlehem and its surrounding locales along the Delaware River and its tributaries in eastern Pennsylvania were inhabited by various indigenous peoples, including the Algonquian speaking Lenape, which had three main divisions, known by the dialects, the Unami, Unalachtigo, and Munsee. They traded with the Dutch and then British colonialists in the Mid Atlantic region in present day Connecticut, Delaware, Long Island, Maryland, New Jersey, and the lower Hudson Valley in New York, and other regions in Pennsylvania.

On April 2, 1741, William Allen, a wealthy Philadelphia merchant and political figure, who later founded the city of Allentown, deeded along the banks of the Monocacy Creek and Lehigh River to the Moravian Church. On Christmas Eve of that year, David Nitschmann and Nicolaus Zinzendorf, leading a small group of Moravians, founded the mission community of Bethlehem at the confluence of the Monocacy and Lehigh rivers. They established missionary communities among the Native Americans and unchurched German speaking Christians and named the settlement after the Biblical town Bethlehem of Judea, said to be the birthplace of Jesus. "Count Zinzendorf said, 'Brothers, how more fittingly could we call our new home than to name it in honor of the spot where the event we now commemorate took place. We will call this place Bethlehem.' And so was Bethlehem named after the birthplace of the Man of Peace." Bethlehem was started as a typical Moravian Settlement Congregation, where the Church owned all the property. Until the 1850s, officially only members of the Moravian Church were permitted to lease land plots in Bethlehem. But a member of a group of families who were Huguenots also settled in Bethlehem. In the late 1700s, Bethlehem established grist and saw mills, known as Calvin's Mills. The historic Brethren's House, Sisters' House, Widows' House, and Gemeinhaus (Congregation House), with the Old Chapel, are remnants of this period of communal living. The Moravians ministered to the regional Lenape Native Americans through their mission in the area, and to others further east in the New York colony. In historic Bethlehem's God's Acre cemetery, converted Lenape were buried alongside Moravians. In 1762, Bethlehem built the first waterworks in America to pump water for public use. In the autumn of 1777, during the American Revolutionary War, many patriots fled from Philadelphia to Bethlehem and the surrounding area as the British Army advanced from the east. The Marquis de Lafayette recovered from an injury received at the Battle of Brandywine in Bethlehem, and several of the most prominent members of the Continental Congress fled north to Bethlehem before the congress eventually reconvened in Lancaster. Before, during, and after the American Revolution, Bethlehem was visited by George Washington and his wife Martha, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and the Marquis de Lafayette. On September 22, 1777, fourteen members of the Second Continental Congress signed the Moravian Sun Inn register in Bethlehem and stayed there overnight. George Washington stored his personal effects at the James Burnside farm at 1461 Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem. , this site is operated as a historical museum known as James Burnside Plantation.

In 1845, Bethlehem was a prosperous village that was incorporated into a free borough in the County of Northampton. After the Unity Synod of 1848, Bethlehem became the headquarters of the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in North America. On March 27, 1900, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem presented the United States debut of German Lutheran composer Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B Minor in the city's Central Moravian Church. Bethlehem was one of the four leading Moravian communities in the Northeastern United States; Emmaus, Lititz, and Nazareth, each in Pennsylvania, were the three others. In 1865, after the end of the Civil War, the Borough of South Bethlehem was formed. In 1886, the Borough of West Bethlehem in Lehigh County was formed.

In 1901, the Borough of Northampton Heights was incorporated. Starting in 1904, the borough of Bethlehem began a concerted effort to merge with its neighboring municipalities. In 1904 Bethlehem absorbed West Bethlehem followed shortly after in 1905 by Hottlesville. South Bethlehem would attempt to resist merger and incorporated themselves as their own city in 1913, however, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania struck down their incorporation as unconstitutional in 1915 and in 1917 South Bethlehem would be annexed. Following the merger with South Bethlehem, the new consolidated City of Bethlehem was incorporated. Bethlehem Steel executive Archibald Johnston was elected the new city's first mayor. Northampton Heights was incorporated into the city in 1920 after significant local resistance and a failed proposed merger between Northampton Heights and Hellertown to make a rival city. With the annexation of Hottlesville, Macada, Altonah, and Shimersville, Bethlehem's present borders were established.

According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.4 square miles (50 km2), of which 19.3 square miles (50 km2) is land and 0.2 square miles (1 km2) (0.88%) is water. Because large volumes of water were required in the steelmaking process, the city purchased of land in the Pocono Mountains, where its water is stored in reservoirs. The Lehigh River, a tributary of the Delaware, flows through Bethlehem. Monocacy and Saucon Creeks empty into the Lehigh River in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is approximately 50 mile (80 km) north of Philadelphia and about 80 mile (129 km) west of New York City.

Bethlehem has a humid continental climate (Dfa). Summers are typically hot and humid, fall and spring are generally mild, and winter is cold. Precipitation is distributed fairly uniformly throughout the year, with thunderstorms in the summer, showers in spring and fall, and snow in winter. The average high temperature varies widely, from in January to in July. The highest recorded temperature was , while the lowest recorded temperature was
Bethlehem falls under the USDA 6b Plant hardiness zone.

Bethlehem is divided into five main areas: Center City, West Side, East Side, South Side, and North Side. The West Side is located in Lehigh County and the other four neighborhoods are in Northampton County. Center City is bounded by Monocacy Creek to the west, Dewberry Ave. to the North, and Stefko Boulevard to the east. The West Side begins at the city's western border with Allentown and continues east to the Monocacy Creek and north to Hanover Township. The Mount Airy Neighborhood is bounded by Pennsylvania Ave to the west, West Broad St to the north, 2nd Avenue to the east, and the Lehigh River to the south. The East Side is bordered to the west by Center City and to the east by Bethlehem Township and Freemansburg. The East Side includes the Pembroke Village area. The South Side's borders are Fountain Hill to the west, the Lehigh River to the north, South Mountain to the south, and Hellertown to the east. The North Side begins above Dewberry Ave and extends up Route 191 (Linden Ave) to Oakland Road, where the city and township divide is. Northside extends as far West as Monocacy Creek on Macada Road and as far East as Easton Ave and Stefko Blvd. intersection. 'North Side' refers more to a cultural division than an actual boundary.

As of the 2020 census, For reference, the United States' average was 368.9 in 2018.

Bethlehem became a center of heavy industry and trade during the industrial revolution. Bethlehem Steel (1857–2003), founded and based in Bethlehem, was once the second largest steel producer in the United States, after Pittsburgh based U. S. Steel. The company was a powerhouse in the mid twentieth century, with over 30,000 employees at its peak. Bethlehem Steel was also one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the world and one of the most powerful symbols of American industrial manufacturing leadership, and it manufactured over 1,100 warships used in World War II. Bethlehem Steel began producing the first wide flange structural shapes made in the United States and they pioneered the production of the now ubiquitous "I beam" used in construction of steel framed buildings, including skyscrapers. It manufactured construction materials for numerous New York City and other city skyscrapers and major bridges. The company became a major supplier of armor plate and ordnance products during World War I and World War II. After roughly 140 years of metal production at its Bethlehem plant, Bethlehem Steel ceased operations there in 1995, in the face of overseas competition and declining demand, and the company's liquidation was completed in 2003.

In December 2006, Las Vegas Sands Corp was awarded a Category 2 Slot Machine License by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. LVSC began work on the site, categorized as both the largest brownfield redevelopment project in the nation and the largest casino development investment made to date in Pennsylvania. Its mission was to create reinvestment and urbanization in the area. At a projected cost of $743 million, the historic Bethlehem Steel plant is being redeveloped as a fully integrated resort, to include 3,000 slot machines, over 300 hotel rooms, 9 restaurants, of retail outlet shopping, and of flexible multi purpose space. In 2007, the casino resort company of Las Vegas Sands began the construction of Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, later rebranded as Wind Creek Bethlehem. The casino has been projected to bring in approximately one million dollars in revenue per day as of 2009. Another major economic anchor to the city is St. Luke's Hospital located in neighboring Fountain Hill. That Hospital and Health Network is the second largest of its type in the Lehigh Valley. Other major employers include B. Braun, Lehigh University, and the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. Other companies in Bethlehem include the candy company Just Born. Zulily has a large logistics operation in the city that serves the United States.

Bethlehem has a long historical relationship with the celebration of Christmas, which is prominently celebrated in the city annually. The city was christened as Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, 1741 by Nicolaus Zinzendorf, a Moravian bishop. In 1747, Bethlehem was the first U. S. city to feature a decorated Christmas tree. held annually on the campus of Lehigh University and on the historic grounds of the nation's earliest Moravians. Other Bethlehem festivals include The Celtic Classic, which celebrates Celtic culture, food and music, and the SouthSide Film Festival, a film festival. The city also hosts the North East Art Rock Festival, or NEARFest, a three day progressive rock music event.

The Bethlehem Area Public Library is a popular destination for recreation and entertainment. The Banana Factory houses studios of area artists and is open to the public every first Friday of the month. Touchstone Theatre, also on Bethlehem's SouthSide, houses the Valley's only professional resident theatre company, which produces and presents original theatre performances.

Bethlehem hosts Musikfest, the nation's largest free music festival, annually each August. The festival spans 10 days, attracts roughly a million attendees from all over the world, and features hundreds of musical acts from all genres.

In 2011, the city opened Steel Stacks, a 10 acre campus on the former grounds of Bethlehem Steel, that showcases music, art, festivals, films and educational programming throughout the year. It is located in the backdrop of the blast furnaces of the former Bethlehem Steel plant.

Lehigh University's Zoellner Arts Center offers a variety of musical and dramatic events through the year.

On the first Friday of the month, the businesses of the Southside Shopping District host First Friday, a celebration of arts and culture. Stores, restaurants and art galleries stay open late and offer special discounts, refreshments, gallery openings and more. The Lehigh Canal provides hiking and biking opportunities along the canal towpath which follows the Lehigh River in Bethlehem. Both the Lehigh Canal and the Monocacy Creek are popular for sport fishing, and both are stocked annually with trout.

Lehigh Valley RFC, a rugby union team founded in 1998, play their home matches at Monocacy Park.

Bethlehem Steel FC, a United Soccer League team founded in 2015, played at Goodman Stadium at Lehigh University, until 2019, when it moved to Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania after concerns about Goodman Stadium's lighting deficiencies went unaddressed. The Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, a former Professional Indoor Football League, played home games at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem until they moved to Allentown in 2014. From 1996 to 2012, the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League held pre season training camp each summer at the football facilities of Bethlehem's Lehigh University. In the early part of the 20th century, Bethlehem had a corporate soccer team, the Bethlehem Steel F. C., which won the 1918–19 championship in the National Association Football League (NAFL), and then won what amounted to national championships three more times during the next decade (1920–21 in the NAFL; 1926–27 in the American Soccer League I; and in 1928–29 winning the EPSL II). The Bethlehem Steel sides consisted largely of British imported players and also had the distinction of being the first American professional soccer team to play in Europe, which it did during its tour of Sweden in 1919. The team also won the National Challenge Cup, now called the Lamar Hunt U. S. Open Cup after billionaire sports franchise owner Lamar Hunt, five times beginning in 1915, and for the last time in 1926.

Bethlehem owns 39 park sites, encompassing Among the city's parks are Buchannan Park, Elmwood Park, Illick's Mill Park, Johnston Park, Monocacy Park, Rockland Park, Rose Garden, Sand Island, Saucon Park, Sell Field, South Mountain Park, Triangle Park, West Side Park, and Yosko Park.

The city government is composed of a mayor and a seven person city council. Mayor J. William Reynolds was sworn in on January 3, 2022. Federally, Bethlehem is part of Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district, represented by Democrat Susan Wild.

Bethlehem is home to three institutes of higher education. Lehigh University, located on South Mountain on Bethlehem's South Side, has 5,000 undergraduates and 2,100 graduate students. The university, which was founded in 1865, was ranked 51st nationally in U. S. News & World Report "Best College Ranking of the nation's best colleges in 2022. Moravian University, located in center city Bethlehem, is a small, highly respected liberal arts college. Founded in 1742 as the Bethlehem Female Seminary, a Primary school. Besides undergraduate programs, the college also includes the Moravian Theological Seminary, a graduate school with approximately 100 students from more than a dozen religious denominations. The International Institute for Restorative Practices is a graduate school dedicated to the advanced education of professionals and to the conduct of research that can develop the growing field of restorative practices. The IIRP offers two master's degrees: the Master of Restorative Practices and Education (MRPE) and the Master of Restorative Practices and Youth Counseling (MRPYC). The IIRP also offers an 18 credit Graduate Certificate in Restorative Practices. The main campus of Northampton Community College is located in neighboring Bethlehem Township.

Bethlehem public schools are managed by the Bethlehem Area School District, which covers a 40 square miles (104 km2) area that includes the city, the boroughs of Fountain Hill and Freemansburg and two townships, Bethlehem Township, and Hanover Township. The district operates two high schools for grades 9–12, Liberty High School near center city, and Freedom High School in neighboring Bethlehem Township. The district also has four public middle schools for grades 6–8: Broughal Middle School, East Hills Middle School, Nitschmann Middle School, and Northeast Middle School. In addition, BASD maintains 16 public elementary schools for grades K 5: Asa Packer Elementary School, Calypso Elementary School, Clearview Elementary School, Donegan Elementary School, Farmersville Elementary School, Fountain Hill Elementary School, Freemansburg Elementary School, Governor Wolf Elementary School, Hanover Elementary School, James Buchanan Elementary School, Lincoln Elementary School, Marvine Elementary School, Miller Heights Elementary School, Spring Garden Elementary School, Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, and William Penn Elementary School. Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts is also operated by the district, though it accepts students in grades 9–12 from throughout Northampton and surrounding counties. Bethlehem has two parochial high schools available to students: Bethlehem Catholic High School, which serves grades 9–12, and Moravian Academy, which serves all primary and secondary school grades. Notre Dame High School, located in Easton, serves grades 9 through 12. Each of Bethlehem's three large high schools, Bethlehem Catholic, Freedom, and Liberty, compete athletically in Pennsylvania's Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and play their home football games at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium, a 14,000 capacity stadium that is one of the largest high school football stadiums in the state and has been labeled "a local football mecca."

Two daily newspapers currently serve Bethlehem. The Morning Call, based in Allentown, and The Express Times, based in Easton. Other smaller newspapers include The Bethlehem Press, an award winning weekly, Pulse Weekly, based in Allentown, Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal, based in Bethlehem, and Lehigh Valley Sports Extra, an all sports monthly newspaper founded in 2001. A Bethlehem based daily, The Globe Times, founded in 1855, ceased publication in 1991. Religious broadcaster WBPH is the only television station licensed in Bethlehem, though WLVT Channel 39, a PBS affiliate, has its operations in the city. WFMZ Channel 69, an independent station, is based in neighboring Allentown. Bethlehem is part of the Philadelphia media market, the nation's fourth largest, and its cable systems also receive select radio and television broadcasts from New York City. Bethlehem has two licensed commercial radio stations, variety WGPA AM and hard rock WZZO FM. There is also one non commercial station, WLVR FM, operated by Lehigh University. Public radio station WDIY FM, while licensed in Allentown, maintains its facilities in Bethlehem. There are numerous other stations broadcast from Allentown and Easton, representing a variety of commercial formats and several translators of public stations from Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Lehigh Valley International Airport, the fourth largest commercial airport in Pennsylvania, is located roughly 4 mile (6 km) north of Bethlehem in Allentown.

As of 2022, there were 234.13 mile (377 km) of public roads in Bethlehem, of which 27.35 mile (44 km) were maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and 206.78 mile (333 km) were maintained by the city. Interstate 78 is the most prominent highway serving Bethlehem. It traverses the southeastern corner of the city along an east–west alignment. U. S. Route 22 follows the Lehigh Valley Thruway along a southwest–northeast alignment through the northwestern corner of the city. Pennsylvania Route 378 heads southeastward from US 22 through the heart of downtown Bethlehem on a freeway, then transitions to surface streets as it crosses the Hill to Hill Bridge, following Wyandote Street southward out of the city. Finally, Pennsylvania Route 412 heads northwest from its interchange with I 78, following Hellertown Road into downtown, then a variety of city streets before coming to its northern terminus at PA 378.

LANta provides local bus service in Bethlehem, serving points in the city and providing connections to Allentown, Easton, the Lehigh Valley Mall, and other points in the Lehigh Valley. The Bethlehem Transportation Center at Broad and Guetter streets serves as a transit hub for LANTA buses in Bethlehem. Trans Bridge Lines provides intercity bus service in Bethlehem, stopping at the Bethlehem Transportation Center and the Wind Creek Bethlehem bus terminal. Trans Bridge Lines provides service from Bethlehem to Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City along two routes, one of which runs from Allentown and Bethlehem to New York City and the other which runs from Bethlehem to New York City via Doylestown, Pennsylvania and Flemington, New Jersey. OurBus provides bus service from Bethlehem to Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey.

Freight rail service in Bethlehem is provided by the Norfolk Southern Railway and Lehigh Valley Rail Management. Norfolk Southern Railway operates the Lehigh Line through the city along the Lehigh River, with the Reading Line splitting from the Lehigh Line in Bethlehem. Bethlehem formerly had passenger rail service at the Bethlehem Union Station, which originally served the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Reading Company and had service along SEPTA's Bethlehem Line south to Philadelphia until 1981, when service was cut back to Quakertown and later Lansdale. The Central Railroad of New Jersey formerly provided passenger rail service to the city at the Bethlehem station.

Electricity in Bethlehem is provided by PPL Corporation. UGI Utilities supplies natural gas to the city. The Department of Water and Sewer Resources provides water and sewer service to Bethlehem and parts of 10 adjacent municipalities in Lehigh and Northampton counties, serving 35,000 water customers and 25,000 sewer customers. The city's water supply comes from the Pocono Mountains, with the surface water sources containing 10 billion gallons of freshwater capacity in an area consisting of 23,000 acres of protected watershed. Trash collection in Bethlehem is provided by private haulers while the City of Bethlehem Recycling Department provides recycling collection.

2019: Christmas Radio, a Lifetime Movies film, takes place in Bethlehem. 2015 to 2019: In the HBO series Ballers about retired NFL players, Dwayne Johnson's character Spencer Strasmore is from Bethlehem. Johnson attended high school at Freedom High School in Bethlehem Township.