1.
Pittsburgh
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Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city proper has a population of 304,391. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U. S. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclines, a fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in manufacturing of aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, sports, transportation, computing, autos, and electronics. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment, Americas 1980s deindustrialization laid off area blue-collar workers and thousands of downtown white-collar workers when the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters moved out. The area has served also as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research. The area is home to 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University, the region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction. Pittsburgh was named in 1758 by General John Forbes, in honor of British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. The current pronunciation, which is unusual in English speaking countries, is almost certainly a result of a printing error in some copies of the City Charter of March 18,1816. The error was repeated commonly enough throughout the rest of the 19th century that the pronunciation was lost. After a public campaign the original spelling was restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1911. The area of the Ohio headwaters was long inhabited by the Shawnee, the first known European to enter the region was the French explorer/trader Robert de La Salle from Quebec during his 1669 expedition down the Ohio River. European pioneers, primarily Dutch, followed in the early 18th century, Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio in a 1717 manuscript, and later that year European fur traders established area posts and settlements. In 1749, French soldiers from Quebec launched an expedition to the forks to unite Canada with French Louisiana via the rivers, during 1753–54, the British hastily built Fort Prince George before a larger French force drove them off. The French built Fort Duquesne based on LaSalles 1669 claims, the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years War, began with the future Pittsburgh as its center. British General Edward Braddock was dispatched with Major George Washington as his aide to take Fort Duquesne, the British and colonial force were defeated at Braddocks Field. General John Forbes finally took the forks in 1758, Forbes began construction on Fort Pitt, named after William Pitt the Elder while the settlement was named Pittsborough
2.
Monongahela River
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The Monongahela joins the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. The Native American word Monongahela means falling banks, in reference to the instability of the rivers banks. The Lenape Language Project renders the word as Mënaonkihëla, translated where banks cave in or erode, from the verbs mënaonkihële the dirt caves off and mënaonke, it has a loose bank. Monongalia County and the town of Monongah, both in West Virginia, are named for the river, as is Monongahela in Pennsylvania, the river is navigable its entire length with a series of locks and dams that maintain a minimum depth of 9 feet to accommodate coal-laden barges. In Pennsylvania, the Monongahela is met by two tributaries, the Cheat River, which joins at Point Marion, and the Youghiogheny River. The upper drainage area of the basin is renowned for its whitewater kayaking opportunities. The land here is of a rugged plateau type which allows streams to gather sufficient water volume before they fall off the plateau. An ice dam created a vast lake—known as Lake Monongahela—stretching from its outlet at present-day Beaver, Pennsylvania for 200 miles south to at least Weston, West Virginia. It was as much as 100 miles wide at its maximum, hundreds of feet deep in places, its western and southern overflow gradually created the present-day upper Ohio River Valley. The Monongahela River valley was the site of a famous, if small, battle that was one of the first in the French and it resulted in a sharp defeat for British and Colonial forces against those of the French and their Native American allies. Originally planned to run as far south as the Cheat River, the system was extended to Fairmont, in 1897, the federal government took possession of the Monongahela Navigation through condemnation proceedings. Later, the combinations were increased in size and reduced in number. In 2006, the system, operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, had nine dam-locks along 128.7 miles of waterway. The locks overcame a change in elevation of about 147 feet, briefly linked to the Monongahela Navigation was the Youghiogheny Navigation, a slack water system of 18.5 miles between McKeesport and West Newton. It had two dam-locks overcoming a change in elevation of about 27 feet, opening in 1850, it was destroyed by a flood in 1865. During the 19th century, the Monongahela was heavily used by industry, three ships in the United States Navy have been named Monongahela after the river. In the 1930s, severe drought caused the river to run dry, the river was the site of a famous airplane crash that has become the subject of numerous urban legends and conspiracy theories. All six crewmen survived the crash, but two later succumbed to exposure and drowned, despite the relative shallowness of the water, the aircraft was never recovered
3.
Ohio River
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The Ohio River, which streams westward from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River in the United States. The 981-mile river flows through or along the border of six states, through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River, the basin includes many of the states of the southeastern U. S. It is the source of drinking water for three million people and it is named in Iroquoian or Seneca, Ohi, yó, lit. Good River or Shawnee, Pelewathiipi and Spelewathiipi, the river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans, as numerous civilizations formed along its valley. For thousands of years, Native Americans used the river as a major transportation, in 1669, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle led a French expedition to the Ohio River, becoming the first Europeans to see it. After European-American settlement, the served as a border between present-day Kentucky and Indian Territories. It was a transportation route for pioneers during the westward expansion of the early U. S. In his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1781–82, Thomas Jefferson stated and its current gentle, waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a single instance only excepted. During the 19th century, the river was the boundary of the Northwest Territory. Where the river was narrow, it was the way to freedom for thousands of slaves escaping to the North, many helped by free blacks and whites of the Underground Railroad resistance movement. The Ohio River is a transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of the humid subtropical. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates, in winter, it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely further south toward Cincinnati and Louisville. At Paducah, Kentucky, in the south, near the Ohios confluence with the Mississippi, Paducah was founded there because it is the northernmost ice-free reach of the Ohio. The Ohio River is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at Point State Park in Pittsburgh, from there, it flows northwest through Allegheny and Beaver counties, before making an abrupt turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia–Ohio–Pennsylvania triple-state line. From there, it forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of Wheeling, West Virginia, the river then follows a roughly southwest and then west-northwest course until Cincinnati, before bending to a west-southwest course for most of its length. The course forms the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky. The Ohio drains parts of 15 states in four regions, northeast New York, a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny. Pennsylvania, a corridor from the corner to north central border
4.
History of Pittsburgh
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The history of Pittsburgh began with centuries of Native American civilization in the modern Pittsburgh region, known as Dionde, gâ in the Seneca language. Eventually French and British explorers encountered the strategic confluence where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio, the area became a battleground when France and Britain fought for control in the 1750s. When the British were victorious, the French ceded control of territories east of the Mississippi, following American independence in 1783, the village around Fort Pitt continued to grow. The region saw the short-lived Whiskey Rebellion, when farmers rebelled against federal taxes on whiskey, the War of 1812 cut off the supply of British goods, stimulating American manufacture. By 1815, Pittsburgh was producing large quantities of iron, brass, tin, by the 1840s, Pittsburgh had grown to one of the largest cities west of the Allegheny Mountains. Production of steel began in 1875, during the 1877 railway riots it was the site of the most violence and damage in any city affected by the nationwide strikes of that summer. Workers protested against cuts in wages, burning buildings at the railyards, including 100 train engines. Forty men were killed, most of them strikers, by 1911, Pittsburgh was producing half the nations steel. Pittsburgh was a Republican party stronghold until 1932, in World War II, it was the center of the Arsenal of Democracy, producing munitions for the Allied war effort as prosperity returned. Following World War II, Pittsburgh launched an air and civic revitalization project known as the Renaissance. The industrial base continued to expand through the 1960s, but after 1970 foreign competition led to the collapse of the industry, with massive layoffs. Top corporate headquarters moved out in the 1980s, in 2007 the city lost its status as a major transportation hub. The population of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is holding steady at 2.4 million, 65% of its residents are of European descent, for thousands of years, Native Americans inhabited the region where the Allegheny and the Monongahela join to form the Ohio. Paleo-Indians conducted a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the region perhaps as early as 19,000 years ago, meadowcroft Rockshelter, an archaeological site west of Pittsburgh, provides evidence that these first Americans lived in the region from that date. During the Adena culture that followed, Mound Builders erected a large Indian Mound at the site of McKees Rocks. The Indian Mound, a site, was augmented in later years by members of the Hopewell culture. By 1700 the Iroquois Confederacy, the Five Nations-based south of the Great Lakes in present-day New York, held dominion over the upper Ohio valley, reserving it for hunting grounds. Other tribes included the Lenape, who had displaced from eastern Pennsylvania by European settlement, and the Shawnee
5.
Pittsburgh coal seam
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The Pittsburgh Coal Seam is the thickest and most extensive coal bed in the Appalachian Basin, hence, it is the most economically important coal bed in the eastern United States. The Upper Pennsylvanian Pittsburgh coal bed of the Monongahela Group is extensive and continuous and it extends from Allegany County, Maryland to Belmont County, Ohio and from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania southwest to Putnam County, West Virginia. The first reference to the Pittsburgh coal bed, named by H. D. Rodgers of the First Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, was on a 1751 map, between these anticlines, the strata containing the Pittsburgh coal have been almost obliterated by erosion. The exception is a remnant in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh coal bed formed during a hiatus in active clastic deposition that allowed for the development of a peat mire. The extensively thick peat deposit was destined to one of the most valuable energy resources in the world. The distribution of some of the sediments, particularly the channel sands, may have been controlled in part by deep, significant parts of the clay layer immediately below the Pittsburgh coal rest on an unconformity, that is, an old eroded surface. For this reason, the Pittsburgh seam is taken as the member of the Monongahela Group. The underlying erosion surface is considered the top of the Conemaugh Group, the Monongahela is composed mainly of sandstone, limestone, dolomite, and coal, and consists of a series of up to ten cyclothems. During each cyclothem, the land was flooded, allowing the accumulation of marine deposits such as shale, when the sea level fell, coal formed from the remains of swampland. Some of the beds in the Monongahela group are erratic, sometimes little more than a black streak in the rock. The Pittsburgh coal seam is laterally extensive and it commonly occurs in southwestern Pennsylvania in two benches, and the lower bench can be over six feet thick. The Pittsburgh rider coal bed, which overlies the lower bench, in 1760, Captain Thomas Hutchins visited Fort Pitt and reported that there was a mine on Coal Hill, the original name given to Mount Washington across the Monongahela River from the fort. The coal was extracted from drift mine entries into the Pittsburgh coal seam at outcrop along the hillside about 200 feet above the river. The coal was poured into trenches dug into the hillside, rolled to the edge of the river, sometime around 1765, a fire broke out in this mine, which continued to burn for years, leading to collapse of part of the face of the hill. Mining rights were purchased from the chiefs of the Six Nations in 1768. By 1830, the city of Pittsburgh consumed more than 400 tons per day of coal for domestic. In the early 19th century, Pittsburgh coal became the primary fuel source, about 250,000 bushels of coal were consumed daily for domestic
6.
Allegheny County Courthouse
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The Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is part of a complex designed by H. H. Richardson. The buildings are considered among the finest examples of the Romanesque Revival style for which Richardson is well known, the complex is bordered by wide thoroughfares named for city founders James Ross, John Forbes and James Grant. The current building, completed in 1888, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976, Richardson later referred to it as his great achievement. Pittsburghs original courthouse, first occupied in 1794, was a structure located on one side of Market Square. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court and from December 7,1818, until 1841 the Western District of Pennsylvania also held sessions at Market Square. Land for a new courthouse was purchased in April 1834 and this was a tract of land on the corner of Forbes Avenue and Grant Street, on Grants Hill. Construction took place between 1836 and 1840 and this court house was built with polished gray sandstone, quarried at Coal Hill, opposite Water Street along the Monongahela River. The building was designed by John Chislett, the Greek Revival design included a domed cupola housing a rotunda 60 feet in diameter and 80 feet high. The building was completed in 1841, even in its deteriorated state, it was a handsome structure. On May 7,1882, a fire out and ruined the building. The third, and present, courthouse was erected on the same spot, following the destruction of the second courthouse, Allegheny County Commissioners decided to hold a competition to design a replacement. The winner of the competition was Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson and construction of the buildings was begun by the Norcross Brothers, Richardson’s construction firm of choice, the courtyard is surrounded by four stories in three sides. A tower rises five stories from the open side. As was usually the case with Richardson’s buildings, the roof is steep with dormers placed at all the corners, a prison is connected to the courthouse via the Bridge of Sighs. The design was based on the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, the entire complex was built of large rusticated blocks of granite, with the entrance ways and windows topped with wide arches. This gives the building a heavy, stable and dignified appearance, in the 1900s the street level in front of the building was lowered as part of a general re-grading of Pittsburgh. Richardson had anticipated this and courses of finished masonry had been buried underground, unfortunately this left the ceremonial entrance a full story above the street. Muralist Vincent Nesbert completed five murals for the building on its first floor in 1937, Industry, Justice, Peace, Fort Duquesne, in 1973, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
7.
Downtown Pittsburgh
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Downtown Pittsburgh, colloquially referred to as the Golden Triangle or Dahntahn in eye dialect, and officially the Central Business District, is the urban downtown center of Pittsburgh. It is located at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River whose joining forms the Ohio River, the triangle is bounded by the two rivers. The area features offices for major corporations such as PNC Bank, U. S. Steel, PPG, Bank of New York Mellon, Heinz, Federated Investors and Alcoa. It is where the fortunes of industrial barons as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Henry J. Heinz, Andrew Mellon. It contains the site where the French fort, Fort Duquesne, in 2013, Pittsburgh had the second-lowest vacancy rate for Class A space among downtowns in the United States. The Central Business District is bounded by the Monongahela River to the south, the Allegheny River to the north, an expanded definition of Downtown may include the adjacent neighborhoods of Uptown/The Bluff, the Strip District, the North Shore, and the South Shore. Downtown is served by the Port Authoritys light rail system, an extensive bus network. Greyhounds Pittsburgh bus terminal is located across Liberty Avenue from the Amtrak Station, other important roadways are Pennsylvania Route 28, Pennsylvania Route 51, Pennsylvania Route 65, and U. S. Route 19. Three major entrances to the city are via tunnels, the Fort Pitt Tunnel and Squirrel Hill Tunnel on I-376 and the Liberty Tunnels. The New York Times once called Pittsburgh the only city with an entrance, also traveling I-279 south and I-376, the city explodes into view when coming around a turn in the highway. Downtown surface streets are based on two distinct grid systems that parallel the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and these two grids intersect along Liberty Avenue, creating many unusual street intersections. Furthermore, the Allegheny grid contains numbered streets, while the Monongahela grid contains numbered avenues, and, in fact, there are cases where these numbered roadways intersect, creating some confusion. This unusual grid pattern leads to Pittsburghers giving directions in the terms of landmarks, Pittsburgh is nicknamed The City of Bridges. In Downtown, there are 10 bridges connecting to points north and south, the expanded definition of Downtown includes 18 bridges. In Allegheny County the number exceeds 2,200, while most people still consider the entire Downtown as one neighborhood, there are several significant subdistricts within the Golden Triangle. The Pittsburgh Central Downtown Historic District is a district in the central business district. It is bounded by Wood Street, Forbes Avenue, Grant Street and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 17,1985. Point State Park area, At the triangles tip is Point State Park with its giant fountain and this park was the original site of both Fort Duquesne by the French and the subsequent Fort Pitt by the British
8.
Monongahela Incline
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The Monongahela Incline, built by John Endres in 1870, is located near the Smithfield Street Bridge in Pittsburgh. It is the oldest continuously operating funicular in the United States and it is also one of two surviving inclines from the original 17 passenger-carrying inclines built in Pittsburgh starting in the late 19th century. Its lower station is across the street from the Station Square shopping complex, Pittsburghs expanding industrial base in 1860 created a huge demand for labor, attracting mainly German immigrants to the region. This created a housing shortage as industry occupied most of the flat lands adjacent to the river, leaving only the steep. However, travel between the hill and other areas was hindered by a lack of roads or public transport. The predominantly German immigrants who settled on Mt. Washington, remembering the Seilbahns of their former country, the result was the Monongahela Incline, which opened on May 28,1870. The Monongahela Incline is operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, transfers can be made between the incline and the light rail and buses. PA-226, Monongahela Incline Plane,28 photos,36 data pages,7 photo caption pages Lower Station from Google Maps Street View Upper Station from Google Maps Street View
9.
Hairpin turn
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The hairpin turns are commonly seen in mountaineous area, and often appear continuously. Such turns in ramps and trails may be called switchbacks in American English, in British English switchback is more likely to refer to a heavily undulating road—a use extended from the rollercoaster and the other type of switchback railway. Hairpin turns are often built when a route climbs up or down a slope, so that it can travel mostly across the slope with only moderate steepness. Highways of this style are generally less costly to build. On occasion, the road may loop completely, using a tunnel or bridge to cross itself at a different elevation, when this routing geometry is used for a rail line, it is called a spiral, or spiral loop. In trail building, an alternative to switchbacks is the stairway, the Geiranger road from Geirangerfjord to the mountain pass won the gold medal on the world exhibition, Paris 1900, the original design included a 270° spiral. Norwegian National Road 7 through Måbødalen has a spiral partly within tunnels, the road from Frangokastello to Kallikratis in Crete has 27 tight bends. Due to mountainous profile of the country are many streets in Greece having tight bends. US441 through Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee/North Carolina border, US40 over Berthoud Pass in Colorado. It forms half of the Mount Evans Scenic Byway, pikes Peak Highway in Colorado Springs includes numerous hairpins and switchbacks which are known as Ws. Mexican Autopista 95D has a hairpin turn which is known as La Pera. The Crowsnest Highway in British Columbia, Canada east of Osoyoos has several hairpin turns, a sharp hairpin turn on British Columbia Highway 97 alongside Vaseux Lake near Oliver, British Columbia has been the scene of many accidents and deaths. Nova Scotia Highway 105, part of the Trans-Canada Highway in Cape Breton has a turn after peaking Kellys Mountain before descending to cross the Seal Island Bridge. The Duffy Lake Road in British Columbia descending into Pemberton from Lillooet, 50°184. 31N, 122°354. 50W The Paso Internacional Los Libertadores has several switchbacks on the Chilean side of the pass. 26 below the tunnel entrance alone, in Japan, there is the known Nikkō Irohazaka, a one-way switchback mountain road, located at Nikko, Tochigi. This road plays a significant role in Japanese history, The route was popular with Buddhist pilgrims on their way to Lake Chuzenji, iroha-Zaka ascends more than 1,300 feet. In Macau, a part of the Guia Circuit is a hairpin turn, in India, the Gata Loops, a part of the route from Manali to Leh. And the Agumbe Ghat road from Udupi to Teerthahalli in Karnataka have 13 hairpin turns, in fact, most of the Ghats include at least one hairpin turn
10.
Funicular
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Funiculars of one sort or another have existed for hundreds of years and continue to be used for moving both passengers and goods. Its name derives from the latin, funiculus, diminutive of funis, the basic idea of funicular operation is that two cars are always attached to each other by a cable, which runs through a pulley at the top of the slope. Counterbalancing of the two cars, with one going up and one going down, minimizes the energy needed to lift the car going up, winching is normally done by an electric drive that turns the pulley. Sheave wheels guide the cable to and from the drive mechanism, early funiculars used two parallel straight tracks, four rails, with separate station platforms for each vehicle. The tracks are laid with sufficient space between them for the two cars to pass at the midpoint, the wheels of the cars are usually single-flanged, as on standard railway vehicles. Examples of this type of track layout are the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, layouts that require less width have been developed, with only two or three rails for the most part of the slope and four rails only at the passing section. In layouts using three rails, the rail is shared by both cars. The three-rail layout is wider than the layout, but the passing section is simpler to build. If a rack for braking is used, that rack can be mounted higher in a three-rail layout, some four-rail funiculars have the upper and lower sections interlaced and a single platform at each station. The Hill Train at Legoland, Windsor, is an example of this configuration, until the end of the 1870s, the four-rail parallel-track funicular was the normal configuration. Carl Roman Abt developed the Abt Switch allowing the two-rail layout, in the United States, the first funicular to use a two-rail layout was the Telegraph Hill Railroad in San Francisco, which was in operation from 1884 until 1886. The Mount Lowe Railway in Altadena, California, was the first mountain railway in the United States to use the three-rail layout, three- and two-rail layouts considerably reduced the space required for building a funicular, reducing grading costs on mountain slopes and property costs for urban funiculars. These layouts enabled a funicular boom in the half of the 19th century. The cars can be attached to a cable running through a pulley at the bottom of the incline in case the gravity force acting on the vehicles is too low to operate them on the slope. One of the pulleys must be designed as a wheel to avoid slack in the ropes. In this case, the winching can also be done at the end of the incline. Funiculars used in mines were sometimes unpowered gravity planes, also known as self-acting inclines or brake inclines, the weight of descending loaded wagons was used to pull the empty mine wagons. A few funiculars have been using water tanks under the floor of each car that are filled or emptied until just sufficient imbalance is achieved to allow movement
11.
Duquesne Incline
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The Duquesne Incline is an inclined plane railroad located near Pittsburghs South Side neighborhood and scaling Mt. Washington. Designed by Samuel Diescher, the incline was completed in 1877 and is 800 feet long,400 feet in height, and is inclined at a 30-degree angle. It is a track gauge of 5 ft. Originally steam powered. It later carried passengers, particularly Mt. Washington residents who were tired of walking up footpaths to the top, Inclines were then being built all over Mt. Washington. But as more roads were built on “Coal Hill” most of the inclines were closed. By the end of the 1960s, only the Monongahela Incline, in 1962, the incline was closed, apparently for good. Major repairs were needed, and with so few patrons, the private owners did little. But local Duquesne Heights residents launched a fund-raiser to help the incline and it was a huge success, and on July 1,1963, the incline reopened under the auspices of a non-profit organization dedicated to its preservation. The incline has since been totally refurbished, the cars, built by the J. G. Brill and Company of Philadelphia, have been stripped of paint to reveal the original wood. An observation deck was added at the top affording a view of Pittsburghs Golden Triangle, the incline is featured in the opening scene of the The Next Three Days trailer. The same scene is featured about halfway through the film and it is also featured in the 1983 film Flashdance. In the 1987 movie, Lady Beware, the characters played by Diane Lane, the Duquesne Incline is a featured Pittsburgh landmark on Yinztagram. Port Authority of Allegheny County, The Inclines The Duquesne Incline, official web site Travel Channel video of Incline View on Google Maps
12.
Castle Shannon Incline
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The Castle Shannon Incline was a funicular railroad in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally part of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad route to the suburb of Castle Shannon and it replaced an earlier incline dating to 1825 that brought coal down from a mine in Mount Washington. Initially opened on 26 August 1890, the incline operated for only a few days before breaking down, after a second abortive run in October, it was decided that the machinery had to be replaced. The refitted incline opened on 7 March 1891 and it ran from Bailey Avenue west of Haberman Avenue down to Carson Street just west of Arlington Avenue. The oldest part of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad was a mine in Mount Washington. When the mine was played out in 1861, the company opened the side of the mine. The company began service in 1874 to develop towns at Fair Haven. Trains ran up the old incline, through the coal mine tunnel, down the slope and horseshoe curve. From that date the old incline, the tunnel. The inclines large cars were able to both passengers and wagons, and later automobiles. In 1909 steam railroad service on the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad was replaced by electric cars of the Pittsburgh Railways that ran through the Mount Washington tunnel. No longer part of a route, Incline No.2 soon became superfluous. Originally steam powered, it was converted to operation in 1918 by the Otis Elevator Company. The incline was closed 21 June 1964, the site of the bottom of the incline is still visible as a gravel slope next to Carson Street where the bus lane joins. Up from there, it passes under existing bridges carrying a railroad, East Sycamore Street, farther up, Cola Street ends at the incline site. The bottom is near the now-popular Station Square, List of funicular railways List of inclines in Pittsburgh Engineering drawings
13.
Station Square (PAT station)
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Station Square is a Transit station on the Port Authority of Allegheny Countys light rail network. It is the last Transit station on the side of the Monongahela River. This station is named for the nearby mixed-use development Station Square, active lobbying by Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr. President of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, and developer of Station Square ensured that the station was constructed, over 3 million tourists visit Station Square each year. Several thousand commuters each weekday also rely on this stop as a park-and-ride station, originally designed and built by Daniel Sifer, the station encompasses railings rescued by Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation from the Brady Street Bridge, which was demolished in 1978. In the late 1990s, DRS Architects renovated the station and provided architectural details in glass that reflected the design in the Brady Street Bridge railings
14.
Pittsburgh Railways
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Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors of the Port Authority of Allegheny County. It had 666 PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America and it had 68 street car routes, of which only three are used by the Port Authority as light rail routes. With the Port Authoritys Transit Development Plan, many names will be changed to its original. Many of the routes have been remembered in the route names of many Port Authority buses. 1895 to 1905 was a time of consolidation for the street railways serving Pittsburgh. On July 27,1896 the United Traction Company was chartered and absorbed the Second Avenue Traction Company, the Southern Traction Company acquired the lease of the West End Traction Company on October 1,1900. Pittsburgh Railways was formed on January 1,1902, when the Southern Traction Company acquired operating rights over the Consolidated Traction Company and United Traction Company. The new company operated 1,100 trolleys on 400 miles of track, with 178.7 million passengers, the Pittsburgh Railway had over 20 car barns located around the city as well as power stations. 1918 was the peak year, operating 99 trolley routes over 606 miles of track. Costs to the rose in the early twentieth century. PRC faced constant pressure from the city to improve equipment and services, workers walked out when a pay raise was rejected. On July 26,1936 Pittsburgh Railways took delivery of PCC streetcar No.100 from the St. Louis Car Company and it was placed in revenue service in August 1936, the first revenue earning PCC in the world. Large scale abandonments of lines began in the late 1950s, usually associated with highway or bridge work, highway improvements in the Duquesne-McKeesport area resulted in the replacement of trolley services with buses on September 21,1958. The replacement of the Point Bridge with the Fort Pitt Bridge precipitated the abandonment of routes to the West End. Pittsburgh Railways Company was engaged in ongoing litigation over the failure of the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to provide streetcar tracks on the new bridge, in the end the company was allowed to abandon 27 miles of street track in situ and was awarded $300,000 as compensation. However, this was the beginning of the end for trolleys in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Railways Interurban Division ran an interurban trolley system linking Pittsburgh with towns in Washington County such as Washington, Charleroi and Roscoe. The origins of the Charleroi interurban line began in 1895 in Monongahela City, in 1900 the line was extended north to Riverview and in 1901 extended south to Black Diamond Mine. Here it turned inland, south along Black Dam Hollow and it met the northern end of the newly constructed Charleroi & West Side Street Railway at the now disused Lock number 4 in North Charleroi
15.
Port Authority of Allegheny County
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Port Authority of Allegheny County is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 26th-largest in the United States. The Port Authoritys bus, light rail and funicular system covers Allegheny County, on a few of its longer-distance routes, service extends into neighboring counties such as Beaver, Washington, and Westmoreland. These counties have their own systems, including several routes that run into downtown Pittsburgh. The Port Authority was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1956 to allow for creation of port facilities in the Pittsburgh area, Three years later, the legislation was amended to allow the Port Authority to acquire privately owned transit companies that served the area. This included the Pittsburgh Railways Company and 32 independent bus and incline operations, on March 1,1964 Port Authority Transit began service. Due to urban sprawl, the agency introduced new routes that served new communities, in the following years, additional buses were ordered and several new transit garages opened. Many of the lines acquired from Pittsburgh Railways were abandoned. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Port Authority hoped to introduce a rapid transit system known as Skybus with rubber-tired vehicles running on rails. In the early 1970s, the Port Authority entered what was dubbed by its fans the Mod era, several new flyer routes and routes to Oaklands university core were introduced as part of a new general marketing strategy. In 1975 the Port Authority took over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad commuter rail line to Versailles and these new routes, coupled with the 1973 oil crisis, generated a major increase in ridership. Due to the state of the economy at the time, fares increased. In spite of setbacks, the South Busway opened in 1977. Many new buses were ordered, and the Martin Luther King Jr, construction of a light rail line that started in downtown south to traverse Beechview, with lines to South Hills Village and Library progressed during the decade. Part of the line was a version of the old trolley system. In July 1985, the subway opened, the Beechview line followed in 1987. In 1989, the agency celebrated its twenty-fifth year of existence, the agency was rocked by a four-week strike due to a labor dispute in 1992. The strike, coupled with changing patterns, caused a decrease in ridership. New buses that were compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were introduced early in the decade, in 1993, the badly deteriorated Overbrook light rail line was shut down, requiring trains to use the Beechview line
16.
Neon sign
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In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in December 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show. While they are used worldwide, neon signs were extremely popular in the United States from about 1920–1960, the installations in Times Square, many originally designed by Douglas Leigh, were famed, and there were nearly 2000 small shops producing neon signs by 1940. In addition to signage, neon lighting is now used frequently by artists and architects, the signage industry has declined in the past several decades, and cities are now concerned with preserving and restoring their antique neon signs. The neon sign is an evolution of the earlier Geissler tube, when a voltage is applied to electrodes inserted through the glass, an electrical glow discharge results. Geissler tubes were popular in the late 1800s, and the different colors they emitted were characteristics of the gases within. They were, however, unsuitable for lighting, the pressure of the gas inside typically declined in use. The discovery of neon in 1898 included the observation of a brilliant red glow in Geissler tubes, immediately following neons discovery, neon tubes were used as scientific instruments and novelties. From December 3–18,1910, Claude demonstrated two 12-metre long bright red neon tubes at the Paris Motor Show and this demonstration lit a peristyle of the Grand Palais. Claudes associate, Jacques Fonsèque, realized the possibilities for a business based on signage, by 1913 a large sign for the vermouth Cinzano illuminated the night sky in Paris, and by 1919 the entrance to the Paris Opera was adorned with neon tube lighting. In 1923, Georges Claude and his French company Claude Neon introduced neon gas signs to the United States by selling two to a Packard car dealership in Los Angeles, earle C. Anthony purchased the two signs reading Packard for $1,250 apiece. Neon lighting quickly became a fixture in outdoor advertising. Visible even in daylight, people would stop and stare at the first neon signs for hours, the next major technological innovation in neon lighting and signs was the development of fluorescent tube coatings. Jacques Risler received a French patent in 1926 for these, Neon signs that use an argon/mercury gas mixture emit a good deal of ultraviolet light. When this light is absorbed by a fluorescent coating, preferably inside the tube, while only a few colors were initially available to sign designers, after the Second World War phosphor materials were researched intensively for use in color televisions. About two dozen colors were available to sign designers in the 1960s, and today there are nearly 100 available colors. Neon tube signs are produced by the craft of bending glass tubing into shapes, a worker skilled in this craft is known as a glass bender, neon bender or tube bender. The neon tube is made out of 4–5 straight sticks of hollow glass sold by sign suppliers to neon shops worldwide where they are assembled into individual custom designed and fabricated lamps
17.
Iron City Brewing Company
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The Iron City Brewing Company is a beer company that until August 2009 had been located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. On June 11,2009, it was reported that the brewery was moving to Latrobe and that move was recently completed and Iron City is now produced in the Latrobe Brewery that was once used to produce Rolling Rock. This founder of Frauenheim, Miller & Company started brewing Iron City Beer, now the flagship of the Iron City Brewing Company, in a city thriving on heavy industry, by 1866, the brewery had begun to grow. The business outgrew its facilities on 17th Street and moved into a four-story brick building that the company built at Liberty Avenue and 34th Street. Just three years later, Iron City Brewery erected an additional building at the site. The two buildings, carrying a stock of about 10,000 barrels, used state-of-the-art brewing equipment. At the time,25 of the operations 30 skilled workmen were employed full-time, after the 1866 expansion, Leopold Vilsack, a Pittsburgh native who learned the brewer’s trade at Pittsburgh’s old Bennett Brewery, joined Frauenheim, Miller & Company. The young man became a partner, investing his small wealth in the firm when Miller retired. Iron City Brewery then became Frauenheim and Vilsack Company, Frauenheim and Vilsack’s fame spread throughout the brewing industry across the country, as the company had built one of the most complete and extensive breweries in the United States. With a brewing capacity of about 50,000 barrels a year, historians and newspapers were amazed that a brewery could be so big. The total value of Iron City, from stock to raw materials, was about $150,000 – an unheard of sum for a brewery, by 1886, the Iron City Brewery had about large 500 reception cask, each of which held 45 to 50 barrels of beer. And, the brewery had about 10,000 kegs in constant use, during the latter part of the 19th century, trusts became the business vogue, and industries began to merge or form trusts to achieve stability through size and take advantage of economies of scale. The brewing industry was no exception, nusser, Ebhardt & Ober Brewing Company, Hippely & Sons, Ober Brewing Company, J. Seiferth Brothers, Straub Brewing Company, and the Iron City Brewing Company. In addition to these 12 Pittsburgh and Allegheny County breweries, nine breweries outside the county took part in the merger, in all,21 breweries joined to make Pittsburgh Brewing Company the largest brewing operation in Pennsylvania and the third largest in the country. The combined facilities, worth about $11 million, provided a capacity of more than one million barrels, greater efficiencies and more modern equipment made it practical to close many of the 21 breweries shortly after the incorporation without relinquishing capacities. Prohibition, starting in 1920, forced many breweries, distillers and taverns to close, yet Pittsburgh Brewing Company survived. One of only 725 American breweries left when the movement was repealed in April 1933, PBC produced soft drinks, ice cream and near beer, the brewery’s creative efforts kept alive a Pittsburgh tradition and foreshadowed future innovations that would again restore security in times of struggle. In the 1970s, the Pittsburgh Brewing Company acquired the Queen City Brewing Company of Cumberland, Maryland, the Queen City Brewing Company was also known as the Old German Brewing Company and included the Cumberland Brewing Company, which was purchased by the brewery in 1958
18.
Clark's Teaberry
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Teaberry is currently marketed by Clark Gum Company in Buffalo, New York, and made in Mexico. The popularity of Teaberry peaked in the 1960s and it was additionally popularized when Pelican Films produced a series of commercials using music from Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Clark liked The Mexican Shuffle from the South of the Border album, in each commercial, a bored-looking person would unwrap a stick of Clarks Teaberry gum and start chewing it. The chewer would abruptly break into a rapid, energetic dance with distinctive shuffling steps for several seconds, in all the commercials, the dance steps were quite simple, the creators of the ad campaign may have hoped that the commercials would inspire a dance craze. The gums flavor recalls that of Gaultheria procumbens, from which it derives its name, the gum is pink in color, individually wrapped in white paper, and wrapped again in a pink teaberry-printed paper. 1960s Teaberry Gum commercial on YouTube, complete with an English Queens Guard undertaking the Teaberry Shuffle
19.
WTAE-TV
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WTAE-TV, channel 4, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by the Hearst Television division of the Hearst Corporation and has been owned by Hearst since the stations inception and it is one of three flagship television stations of Hearst Television, along with WCVB and WBAL-TV. The stations studios are located on Ardmore Boulevard in the suburb of Wilkinsburg, on cable, WTAE is carried on Comcast channels 8 and 804, and Verizon FiOS channels 4 and 504. WTAE-TV began broadcasting on September 14,1958, the station has been Pittsburghs ABC affiliate since its sign-on, from the beginning, the Hearst Corporation has been involved in the stations ownership. How the station came to be was the result of a long and complicated drama surrounding the awarding of the construction permit. Further development of stations in Pittsburgh was halted by the Federal Communications Commission s freeze on license awards, the cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are close enough together that they must share the VHF band. Several months after the freeze was lifted two UHF stations in Pittsburgh, WENS-TV and WKJF-TV, went on the air, for reasons that were both technical and financial, both stations were short-lived. Meanwhile, revisions to the VHF allocation table had given the Pittsburgh area three additional channels –4,11, and 13, the reserved for non-commercial educational purposes. Hearings on the channel 4 permit opened in 1955, and it was granted by the FCC to the owners of KQV radio in 1956. The subsequent reconsideration awarded channel 4 to Hearst, together, both firms became equal partners in Television City, Inc. under which ownership WTAE-TV went on the air. Hearst would purchase the remaining 50 percent of the station in 1962, as such, WTAE-TV is the only Pittsburgh television station affiliated with a major network to have not changed ownership. Shortly before the station signed on, the FCC moved the channel 4 assignment to Pittsburgh proper following several years of petitioning by then-Pittsburgh mayor David L. Lawrence. However, the FCC had recently changed its rules so that channel 4 could have based its main studio in Pittsburgh, the stations original ownership groups connections with powerful U. S. Senator from Florida, George Smathers led to televised U. S. House hearings with both Lawrence and Smathers testifying in 1958, shortly after signing on, WTAE-TV was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network, sharing the affiliation with KDKA-TV, WIIC-TV, and WQED. Shock Theatre featured monster movies such as The Invisible Man and Frankenstein in-between live-action comedic skits, perry served jail time, and the drawings were moved to WHP-TV in Harrisburg a year later. This resulted in now being audited and monitored with witnesses from the government and/or accounting firms. KDKA-TV aired the Lottery drawings in the Pittsburgh market after this incident until 2009, in 1986, WTAE-TV partnered with the Salvation Army and started Project Bundle Up, an operation to make sure that children and seniors receive warm clothing. In 2007, WTAE-TV moved the auction to the Internet, WTAE-TV did not begin running Good Morning America until December 1978, and only aired an hour of the program until 1980
20.
Alcoa
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Alcoa Inc. is an American industrial corporation, it ranks as the worlds third largest producer of aluminum, behind Rio Tinto Alcan and Rusal, with corporate headquarters in New York City. It is the worlds largest Aluminium company by revenue, from its operational base in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, Alcoa conducts operations in 31 countries. Aluminum and alumina represent more than three-fourths of Alcoa’s revenue, non-aluminum products include precision castings and aerospace and industrial fasteners. Alcoa’s products are used worldwide in aircraft, automobiles, commercial transportation, packaging, building and construction, oil and gas, defense, in May 2007 Alcoa made a US$27 billion hostile takeover bid for Alcan in an attempt to form the worlds largest aluminum producer. The bid was withdrawn when Alcan announced a takeover by Rio Tinto in July 2007. Among Alcoas other businesses are fastening systems, building products, the sale of the packaging unit was announced on December 21,2007, and closed in the first quarter of 2008. On November 1,2016, Alcoa split into two new entities, Alcoa Corporation and Arconic Inc, the split completed a process that was initiated by the company in September 2015. In 1886, Charles Martin Hall, a graduate of Oberlin College, discovered the process of smelting aluminum and he realized that by passing an electric current through a bath of cryolite and aluminum oxide, the then semi-rare metal aluminum remained as a byproduct. This discovery, now called the Hall-Héroult process, is still the only used to make aluminum. Probably fewer than ten sites in the United States and Europe produced any aluminum at the time. In 1887, Hall made an agreement to try his process at the Electric Smelting and Aluminum Company plant in Lockport, New York, but it was not used and Hall left after one year. On Thanksgiving Day 1888, with the help of Alfred E. Hunt, he started the Pittsburgh Reduction Company with an experimental smelting plant on Smallman Street in Pittsburgh, in 1891, the company went into production in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. In 1895, a third site opened at Niagara Falls, by about 1903, after a settlement with Halls former employer, and while its patents were in force, the company was the only legal supplier of aluminum in the United States. By 1902 New Kensington consisted of 173,000 sq. Louis, the Aluminum Company of America became the firms new name on January 1,1907. The acronym Alcoa was coined in 1910, given as a name to two of the locales where major corporate facilities were located, and in 1999 was adopted as the corporate name. In 1907 it created the town of Pine Grove, New York. In Baden, Alcoa, Maryville and elsewhere the company funded the construction of schools, parks, playgrounds and medical facilities. By the end of World War I Alcoas New Kensington facility accounted for 3,292 workers—a fifth of the local population—and covered over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space on 75 acres
21.
Bayer
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Bayer AG, German pronunciation, ) is a German multinational chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company. It is headquartered in Leverkusen, where its sign is a landmark. Bayers primary areas of business include human and veterinary pharmaceuticals, consumer products, agricultural chemicals and biotechnology products. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index, the companys motto is science for a better life. Bayers first and best known product was aspirin, there is a dispute about what scientist at Bayer made the most important contributions to it, Bayer trademarked the name heroin for the drug diacetylmorphine and marketed it as a cough suppressant and non-addictive substitute for morphine from 1898 to 1910. Bayer also introduced phenobarbital, prontosil, the first widely used antibiotic and the subject of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Medicine, the antibiotic Cipro, in 2014 Bayer bought MSDs consumer business, with brands such as Claritin, Coppertone and Dr. Scholls. Its BayerCropscience business develops genetically modified crops and pesticides and its materials science division makes polymers like polyurethanes and polycarbonate. Bayer was founded in Barmen in 1863 and it was part of IG Farben, the worlds largest chemical and pharmaceutical company, from 1925 to 1952, and then again became an independent company. The company played a key role in the Wirtschaftswunder during the early Cold War, Bayer acquired Schering in 2006 and announced its acquisition of Monsanto in 2016, the merger is still pending approval. Bayer AG was founded in Barmen, Germany in 1863 by Friedrich Bayer and his partner, the companys corporate logo, the Bayer cross, was introduced in 1904. It consists of the horizontal word BAYER crossed with the vertical word BAYER, an illuminated version of the logo is a landmark in Leverkusen, the location of Bayer AGs headquarters. Bayers first major product was acetylsalicylic acid, a modification of salicylic acid or salicin and it is now widely used in the US, UK, and France for all brands of the drug. However, it is still a trademark of Bayer in more than 80 other countries, including Canada, Mexico, Germany. As of 2011, approximately 40 thousand tons of aspirin are produced each year and 10 to 20 billion tablets are taken in the U. S. alone each year for prevention of cardiovascular events. It is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, the most important medications needed in a health system. There has been controversy over the roles played by Bayer scientists in the development of aspirin, Arthur Eichengrün, a Bayer chemist, claimed to be the first to discover an aspirin formulation which did not have the unpleasant side effects of nausea and gastric pain. Eichengrün also claimed that he invented the name aspirin and was the first person to use the new formulation to test its safety, Bayer contends that aspirin was discovered by Felix Hoffmann to alleviate the sufferings of his father, who had arthritis. Various sources support the conflicting claims, most mainstream historians attribute the invention of aspirin to Felix Hoffmann and/or Arthur Eichengrün
22.
Lamar Advertising Company
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Lamar Advertising is an outdoor advertising company which operates billboards, logo signs, and transit displays in the U. S, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The company was founded in 1902 by Charles W. Lamar and J. M. Coe, the company has over 200 locations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. They have reportedly more than 325,000 displays across the USA, Lamar Advertising Company became a real estate investment trust in 2014. Lamar Advertising Company was founded in 1902 by J. M. Coe, the Pensacola Opera House and the Pensacola Advertising Company that was created to promote it were to be divided between the two men. Charles W. Lamar lost the toss and was left with the poster company. The Pensacola Opera House was destroyed during Hurricane Four of the 1917 Atlantic Hurricane season, in January,2016, Lamar purchased advertising rights in 5 major U. S. city markets from Clear Channel Outdoors for $458.5 million
23.
Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel
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The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel, also known as the Mount Washington Coal Tunnel, was a 3 ft 4 in narrow gauge railway tunnel under Mt. Washington. It was originally begun as a mine in 1825 by Jacob Beltzhoover. The tunnel provided passenger service beginning in 1874, but this was terminated in 1880, the tunnel was declared unsafe for passenger transport in 1893. However, the tunnel and the Horseshoe Curve continued to be used to transport coal until May 1,1912, the southern end of the tunnel temporarily collapsed in a rainstorm in 1901. PA-410, Pittsburgh & Castle Shannon Railroad, South Hills Junction, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA,31 data pages Pittsburghs Forgotten Tunnel
24.
Saw Mill Run
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Saw Mill Run is a tributary of the Ohio River in Pennsylvania. It is a stream, and lies entirely within Allegheny County. The stream enters the Ohio just downstream from the Forks of the Ohio in Pittsburgh and it provides an entry through the elevated plateau south of Pittsburgh known as the South Hills, and land transportation has paralleled the stream since the nineteenth century. The Coal Hill Coal Railroad crossed the stream on a trestle, the Little Saw Mill Run Railroad followed the west branch of the stream towards Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway operated a rail line on the western end of the stream. It had been used by the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway as a connection with the Pittsburgh, the W&LE operated it until late 2008, and most of the line has been torn up, with the crossing signal cantilevers on Steuben Street being removed in 2012. The right of way of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon, excluding the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel through a mine, was leased by Pittsburgh Railways in 1905. The railroad ran with a dual system, with coal trains continuing to run on the narrow gauge, and at night. The right of way is part of the Pittsburgh Light Rail transportation system today, part of Pennsylvania Route 51 runs parallel to the stream, and this section is known as Saw Mill Run Boulevard. The watershed of Saw Mill Run covers 12,432 acres, the main stream is 9.3 miles long, and drains parts of Bethel Park, Castle Shannon, Mount Oliver, and the city of Pittsburgh
25.
Mount Washington Transit Tunnel
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Mount Washington Transit Tunnel is an important public transportation link in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The approximately 3, 500-foot tunnel connects Station Square to South Hills Junction, the tunnel was built by Booth and Flinn for Pittsburgh Railways to overcome the barrier of Mount Washington to the development of electric streetcar services to points south. Excavation was started October 6,1902, and the tunnel was officially opened December 1,1904, the tunnel was paved around the rails to allow for joint use by bus and trolley traffic in 1973. The Transit tunnel is located almost in line with the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel and that tunnel was originally a coal mine accessed from the top of an incline on the river side. It was later opened at the back and used to run through to other mines in the Saw Mill Run valley. From 1909 the main passenger service became Pittsburgh Railways streetcars running from the Transit Tunnel into the Castle Shannon route at South Hills Junction, because of the related nature of the two tunnels, an urban legend persists that the Transit Tunnel was originally a coal mine. Two spectacular runaway accidents are associated with the tunnel, which is on a steep gradient averaging over 6 percent, on December 24,1917, Knoxville service car 4236 ran away downhill after becoming detached from the wire and derailed and overturned on the curve into Carson Street. The car slid on its side until hitting a telegraph pole which ripped the roof off, twenty-one people were killed and 80 were injured, the claims from the accident sent Pittsburgh Railways into receivership. On October 29,1987, a 1700-series all-electric PCC car began to exceed the speed limit as it entered the south portal after departing South Hills Junction. The car left the rails and took Smithfield Street instead, crossing Carson Street, sideswiping a PAT bus and a truck, and knocking out a fire hydrant. Miraculously, the car stayed on its wheels, and finally stopped next to the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, thirty-seven people were injured, four seriously, but there were no fatalities. All three braking systems on the car had failed, the drum, dynamic, and magnetic rail brakes, most of the 1700 series cars were found to have electrical defects, prompting PAT to retire all of their remaining PCCs that had not been rebuilt as 4000 series cars. Consequently, PAT was left with a shortage of cars, which contributed to the closure of the Overbrook line in 1993. 40. 4221°N80. 0063°W /40.4221, -80.0063 - Southern portal 40. 4317°N80. 0044°W /40.4317, -80.0044 - Northern portal
26.
Wabash Tunnel
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The Wabash Tunnel is a former railway tunnel and presently an automobile tunnel through Mt. Washington in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Constructed early in the 20th century by railroad magnate George J. Gould, it was closed to trains, conceived in the late 1800s, the tunnel was built in 1903 for Goulds Wabash Railroad venture into Pittsburgh, which failed in 1908. It carried passenger trains into the city until 1931, and freight trains until 1946, after the end of train service, the tunnel sat empty for many years. The tunnel was connected to the Wabash Bridge across the Monongahela River, but this was demolished in 1948. Its two stone piers remain in the river. In the early 1970s the Port Authority of Allegheny County spent US$6 million rebuilding the tunnel for the never-to-be-operational Skybus people mover system, during this period, the tunnel was used to hold up to 87 of PATs disused 1950s-era transit buses in reserve. The tunnel portals were reinforced to deter vandals, to the satisfaction of PATs insurers, despite this, in 1980, vandals gained access and smashed hundreds of windows and headlights on the two rows of buses parked inside. By 1992, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation was considering using the Wabash Tunnel as a roadway to compensate for a closure of the Fort Pitt Tunnel. As part of the conversion to a roadway, the guideways for the Skybus system were removed and replaced with new paving, when awarded in 1994, the contract for this work was worth US$3.2 million. However, in 1995, PAT declined to build a new bridge to connect the tunnel with downtown Pittsburgh. On July 23,2003 PAT approved contracts for US$10.9 million to build high-occupancy vehicle ramps and modernized the tunnel, as well as provide a 172-space park-and-ride lot along Woodruff Street. The little-used HOV lane was opened on December 27,2004, running from West Carson St. on the South Side, the Fort Pitt Tunnel to the west and the Liberty Tunnels to the east carry nearly all of the vehicular traffic heading downtown. On November 6,2013 the Federal Transit Administration lifted the car pool requirements to provide a route for drivers. Originally built for the Wabash Railroad, the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad acquired it along with most of the property in 1917. The tunnel was sold in 1931 to Allegheny County for $US3 million, the county intended to convert it to a road and use it to relieve the traffic congestion in the Liberty Tunnels, and in 1933 commissioned a $5000 study to investigate this concept. As of April 2006, the tunnel was operated and maintained for PAT by Bruce & Merrilees, the tunnels north portal was severely damaged in a 1925 landslide. The tunnel was closed due to fallen trees on July 19,2012. Wabash Bridge Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal – A large railroad terminal that was located in downtown, across the river from the tunnel portal
27.
Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway
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The Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway was a railroad in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Wheeling, West Virginia, areas. Originally built as the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, a Pittsburgh extension of George J. Goulds Wabash Railroad, the venture entered receivership in 1908 and the line was cut loose. The original Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway built several massive engineering works, including the Wabash Terminal in downtown Pittsburgh, as of December 2008 the two piers of the long gone Wabash Bridge remain standing. The line also had a branch to West End, Pennsylvania, that was abandoned in 2011, and it also has a small industrial branch located near Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania. At the end of 1960 P&WV operated 132 mi of road on 223 mi of track, around 1900 George J. Gould was assembling railroads to create a transcontinental system. The Western Pacific Railway, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and Missouri Pacific Railroad formed the line from the Pacific Ocean at San Francisco to the Mississippi River at St. Louis, past St. Louis, Gould acquired the Wabash Railroad to Toledo. On February 1,1901 Gould, along with Joseph Ramsey, Jr. of the Wabash and others, formed the Pittsburgh-Toledo Syndicate, the next month, the syndicate bought the Pittsburgh and Mansfield Railroad, an unbuilt line with a charter to build into downtown Pittsburgh. By May 1 the syndicate gained control of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad, extending the system from Toledo southeast to Zanesville, Ohio and Wheeling, work on the line, branching off the P&WVs line to Wheeling at Pittsburgh Junction, Ohio, began June 14,1901. On May 7,1904, the three companies were consolidated into the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, to all the properties of the syndicate were transferred. In addition to the Pittsburgh extension Gould planned a line from Zanesville southeast to Belington, West Virginia, from Belington east to tidewater in Baltimore, the Fuller Syndicate bought the West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railway and a controlling interest in the Western Maryland Railroad in 1902. The lines of the Fuller Syndicate were completed to Baltimore, but the Little Kanawha line was not completed, as Goulds plans affected the Pennsylvania Railroads business, PRR took measures to fight back. This included the eviction from PRR property of telegraph poles owned by Goulds Western Union, the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway entered receivership May 29 of that year, ending through traffic between Pittsburgh and the W&LE and Wabash system. After years of operation by its receivers, the company was sold at foreclosure in August 1916 and reorganized November as the Pittsburgh. After an initial denial, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the P&WVs plan to acquire the West Side Belt in December 1928, in 1929, the Pennsylvania Railroad incorporated the Pennroad Corporation as an investment and holding company. This allowed the PRR to indirectly invest in transportation companies without ICC regulation. Among the initial purchases, 72% of the P&WV was acquired, on February 11,1931, the extension to Connellsville, Pennsylvania opened, where the Western Maryland continued east, splitting from the West Side Belt at Pierce. This formed what came to be known as the Alphabet Route, following roughly the same plan as Goulds system, the Nickel Plate leased the Wheeling and Lake Erie on December 1,1949. In March 1950, the Pennroad announced plans to lease the P&WV to the Nickel Plate, in 1962, the Norfolk & Western Railway filed to include the P&WV in the upcoming merger of the Nickel Plate
28.
Pittsburgh Light Rail
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The system is largely linear in a north-south direction, with one terminus just north of Pittsburghs central business district and two termini in the South Hills. The system is owned and operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County and it is the successor system to the streetcar network formerly operated by Pittsburgh Railways, the oldest portions of which date to 1903. In the early 1960s, Pittsburgh had the largest surviving streetcar system in the United States, in 1964 the system was acquired by the Port Authority of Allegheny County, which rapidly converted most routes to buses. By the early 1970s, only a handful of streetcar routes remained, at that time, Port Authority planners were determined to scrap the rail system entirely in favor of busways and an automated guideway transit system developed by Westinghouse Electric called Skybus. Community opposition rallied against the plan and in favor of retaining the electric trolley system. In the end, the LRT option was adopted for the South Hills suburbs, the modern subway in downtown Pittsburgh between Steel Plaza and First Avenue stations uses the Pittsburgh & Steubenville Extension Railroad Tunnel, which began construction in 1863. Rail lines had been a staple of the city and region since the late 19th century, Pittsburgh Railways was one of the predecessors to the Port Authority of Allegheny County. It had 666 PCC cars, the third largest fleet in North America and it had 68 street car routes, of which only three are used by the Port Authority as light rail routes. The oldest portions of these old Pittsburgh Railways routes now served by the Pittsburgh Light Rail system date to 1903-1909, with the Port Authoritys Transit Development Plan, many route names will be changed to its original, such as the 41D Brookline becoming the 39 Brookline. Many of the routes have been remembered in the route names of many Port Authority buses. 1895 to 1905 was a time of consolidation for the street railways serving Pittsburgh. On 27 July 1896 the United Traction Company was chartered and absorbed the Second Avenue Traction Company, the Southern Traction Company acquired the lease of the West End Traction Company on October 1,1900. Pittsburgh Railways was formed on January 1,1902, when the Southern Traction Company acquired operating rights over the Consolidated Traction Company and United Traction Company. The new company operated 1,100 trolleys on 400 miles of track, with 178.7 million passengers, on 26 July 1936 Pittsburgh Railways took delivery of PCC streetcar No.100 from the St. Louis Car Company. It was placed in service in August 1936, the first revenue earning PCC in the world. Large scale abandonments of lines began in the late 1950s, usually associated with highway or bridge work, the crowning achievement was to be a 1. 1-mile downtown subway, eliminating the trolleys slow, street-running loop through Pittsburghs Golden Triangle. The first modern light rail cars began operation from South Hills Village to Castle Shannon on April 15,1984 with the downtown subway added to the system on July 3,1985. The suburban line in the hills were former streetcar lines that had been rehabilitated to accommodate light rail vehicles
29.
Liberty Tunnel
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The Liberty Tunnels are a pair of tunnels located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that allow motorists to travel between the South Hills of Pittsburgh and the city, through Mt. Washington. The design was two vertical wall horseshoe profile tunnels, each consisting of two lanes of traffic and a 4 ft sidewalk. The sidewalks, being used and in disrepair, were removed during a renovation in the 1970s in order to widen. Prior to the construction of the Liberty Tunnels, many projects were proposed. One plan, from engineer W. M. Donley, did not involve constructing tunnels and this would eliminate the need for a tunnel, but the pitch was rejected. Many residents wanted tunnels to be built in Shalerville, later in 1959, the Fort Pitt Tunnels were constructed very near this proposed area. Similarly, other residents wanted tunnels to be built in a valley behind Mt. Washington that led to Dormont and they would follow a low line to exit at Saw Mill Run. This was known as the Bell Tavern plan, which was modified to create the Liberty Tunnels, the final plan for the tunnels shared the southern Bell Tavern portal, but followed a higher line to emerge on the north face of Mt. Washington. This plan required the construction of a new bridge, which was to become the Liberty Bridge, booth and Flinn, Ltd. were awarded the contract to build the new tunnels in January 1919, and construction began shortly thereafter. On May 11,1922, the boring of the tunnels was complete and in January 1924, however, the tunnels were not yet complete and lacked a major component necessary to the project, ventilation. There was not yet a ventilation system and the flow through the tunnels exceeded predicted numbers. During rush hour traffic, some motorists passed out from the fumes emitted from the exhaust of the congested vehicles, for the safety of motorists, the number of vehicles permitted through the tunnels was regulated until a ventilation system was installed. With help from the U. S. Bureau of Mines, in 1928, construction of four 200-foot vertical shafts was completed to continuously provide fresh air to the tunnels. A plant located on top on the mountain was constructed to pump the air through the shafts. After the ventilation system was put into service, the restrictions were lifted. Following the completion of the Liberty Tunnels, the Liberty Bridge was completed and linked to the tunnels on March 27,1928, the bridge and tunnel combination gave motorists and pedestrians a direct route to the city without traveling over or around Mt. Washington. Since August 1987 the tunnels have provided cellular phone reception
30.
Fort Pitt Tunnel
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The Fort Pitt Tunnel carries Interstate 376, U. S. Route 22, US30, and US19 Truck between Downtown Pittsburgh and the West End neighborhood in the U. S. state of Pennsylvania. It has two lanes both inbound and outbound, the tunnel travels beneath Mount Washington. Its northern ramps lead directly to the double-deck Fort Pitt Bridge, to mesh with the bridge, the North portal has openings at two levels, with the eastern opening leading to the top deck of the bridge. At the South portal the openings are at the same level, FORT PITT TUNNEL is mounted in small letters on a grey marblestone frame-like entranceway above the South portal, with large letters used in the North portal frame. The view was also the inspiration for the open on CBS affiliate KDKA-TV for several years in the 1980s and 1990s. It is referenced in Stephen Chboskys novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, on July 11,1954, contracts were awarded for the basic design of the Fort Pitt Tunnels. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Fort Pitt tunnel was held April 17,1957, the cost of the tunnel was $16 million in 1960 terms. On Thursday, May 31,2007, a bomb threat shut down the Fort Pitt Tunnel along with the Liberty and Squirrel Hill tunnels, the tunnel provided AM reception in 1960 however due to design repairs it was discontinued until 1986. It was improved to cover the tunnel with strong reception in March 1997. Since August 1987 the tunnels have provided cellular phone reception, with the help of Carnegie Mellon University graduate students the tunnel has provided FM reception since July 2005 as well as having its AM signals upgraded at the time. In 2015, the flat ceiling was removed due to its poor condition. 3,614 ft in length 28 ft wide 13.5 ft vertical clearance Serves nearly 107,000 vehicles per day, there are 1,788 light fixtures with 3,576 bulbs. There are 187,200 sq ft of tiled surface to wash. Pittsburgh portal Travel Channel video Video of the tunnel 40. 43191°N80. 02440°W /40.43191, -80.02440 - Southern portal 40. 43746°N80. 01394°W /40.43746, -80.01394 - Northern portal
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KDKA-TV
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KDKA-TV, channel 2, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of CBS Corporation, the two stations share studios located at the Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh, while KDKA-TVs transmitter is located in the Perry North neighborhood of Pittsburgh. On cable, KDKA is carried on Comcast channels 6 and 802, the furthest south KDKA-TV is carried on cable is in Beverly, West Virginia. The station went on the air on January 11,1949, as WDTV on channel 3, it was owned and operated by the DuMont Television Network. To mark the occasion, a television special aired that day from 8,30 to 11 p. m. ET on WDTV. The remainder of the featured live segments from DuMont, CBS, NBC, and ABC with Arthur Godfrey, Milton Berle, DuMont host Ted Steele. The station also represented a milestone in the industry, providing the first network that included Pittsburgh and 13 other cities from Boston to St. Louis. WDTV was one of the last stations to receive a permit before the Federal Communications Commission-imposed four-year freeze on new television station licenses. WDTV moved its facilities to channel 2 on November 23,1952, DuMonts network of stations on coaxial cable stretched from Boston to St. Louis. These stations were linked together via AT&Ts coaxial cable feed with the sign-on of WDTV allowing the network to broadcast live programming to all the stations at the same time, Stations not yet connected to the coaxial cable received kinescope recordings via physical delivery. Until the end of the freeze, WDTVs only competition came in the form of distant signals from stations in Johnstown, Altoona, Wheeling, West Virginia, however, Pittsburgh saw two UHF stations launch during 1953 – ABC affiliate WENS-TV, and WKJF-TV, an independent station. At the time, UHF stations could not be viewed without the aid of an expensive, set-top converter, and the picture quality was marginal at best with one. UHF stations in the area faced a problem because Pittsburgh is located in a somewhat rugged dissected plateau. These factors played a role in the short-lived existences of both WKJF and WENS, although Pittsburgh was the sixth largest market in the country, the other VHF stations in town were slow to develop. This was because the cities in the Upper Ohio Valley are so close together that they must share the VHF band. WDTV had a de facto monopoly on Pittsburgh television, like its sister stations WABD and WTTG, it was far stronger than the DuMont network as a whole. According to network general manager Ted Bergmann, WDTV brought in $4 million a year, owning the only readily viewable station in such a large market gave DuMont considerable leverage in getting its programs cleared in large markets where it did not have an affiliate. Also, NBC affiliates from Johnstown and Wheeling were able to be received in Pittsburgh, the Wheeling/Steubenville TV market, despite its very close proximity to Pittsburgh and overlapping signals, remains a separate market by FCC standards today
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