The Pittsburgh Point

At Pittsburgh Point, the Allegheny River flowing from the north and the Monongahela River from the south unite to form the Ohio River, and this geography shaped the city’s history. Native Americans named these waterways long ago. French and British armies fought to dominate them in the 18th century, and Fort Pitt was built in 1758 as a control point for the British Empire in America. After the Revolution, pioneers saw Pittsburgh as the Gateway to the West, and in the mid-19th century slaves saw it as the Crossroads to Freedom, escaping north by river routes from the south. During the 19th century, thousands of steamboats built along these shores carried immigrants and cargoes west as the rivers became busy commercial routes. Great fortunes were made in Pittsburgh’s Golden Triangle as the city benefited from inland water highways, and with abundant fuel and mineral resources it became a vital center of industry, commerce, and transportation. Railways later paralleled the rivers and further linked the city to the expanding nation. After World War II, Pittsburgh remade itself in a famous urban Renaissance and became the first major American city in the 20th century to undertake a complete renewal of its downtown core. Today it is a center of banking, medicine, and education, and after the era of Big Steel ended in the 1970s, the diversity of its industry became key to its future.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · United States