We are aware of the Billy Joel song, and yes, this is the Allentown he had sung about.
Allentown was neither a iron or coal town, but was actually a silk town. Many are still employed
in the few remaining textile mills here.
Allentown is also where the first mass produced transistors were made,
at the Western Electric/Bells Labs/Agree plant on Union Blvd.

The city next door to the east...Bethlehem was the steel town, name sake and
headquarters to Bethlehem Steel. In 1995, Bethlehem Steel closed
it's steel making furnances within the city, where much of the steel in
America's great structures, battleships and rails were made.
Two examples: The Golden Gate Bridge and the World Trade Center.

Sadly, Bethlehem Steel was dissolved in June 2003.

There you go guys... here's a pic of those 50's WE tubes you lust after being made
at the Western Electric Union Boulevard plant (now closed).