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Bessemer, city, Jefferson county, north-central Alabama, U.S., about 15 miles (25 km) southwest of downtown Birmingham in the foothills of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Named for inventor and engineer Sir Henry Bessemer, it was founded on the site of Fort Jonesboro in 1887 by Henry F. DeBardeleben, a local coal and iron baron who built the first steel plant in the area. The city was planned as a steel centre, and its manufactures included railroad...