Pittsburgh

What everyone admires about Pittsburgh is simply that it is a "winner" city. Geography dictates that it should be part of the "Rust Belt", where the economically vital heavy industries have left for places where costs are lower.

Pittsburgh had been the "Steel City" revolving around steel production, it's Canadian counterpart is Hamilton. It is home to U.S. Steel, the fabled company associated with names like Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan. But, unlike too many other cities, Pittsburgh has long since successfully moved beyond that phase.

Being so based on steel, the logical name for Pittsburgh's professional football team was the Steelers. The Super Bowl is the championship game that is held once a year. At the time of this writing, the Steelers have won the Super Bowl an amazing six times.

The success of it's football team is a reflection of the same spirit and dynamism that enabled Pittsburgh to amaze the country by moving beyond the "Rust Belt" phase so quickly. When it became much less expensive to import steel, Pittsburgh essentially had it's whole economy pulled out from under it. Another city might have crashed. But this isn't another city, this is Pittsburgh.

Of course it is also known for it's bars. There are more bars per person than anywhere else.

One name that will often be seen in Pittsburgh is Mellon. The Mellon family are kind of like the Rockefellers of Pittsburgh. The logo of Mellon Bank looks like a melon being sliced with a knife.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellon_Financial#/media/File:Mellonlogo.svg

This is the best place to begin a visit to Pittsburgh, Point State Park. The fountain is right where the Allegheny River meets the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River. This an obvious place for first a fort and then a city. The outlines of the French Fort Duquesne and the British Fort Pitt, for which the city is named, are in this park.

With the two rivers meeting, this is why downtown Pittsburgh is called the Golden Triangle. There are so many bridges in Pittsburgh and also tunnels through Mount Washington to the east. A number of places have spectacular views looking across at downtown.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.441824,-80.0122653,3a,75y,95.51h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPRemJliF4p7DamPcjF8eglPAJMn7NGxYidhZxF!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPRemJliF4p7DamPcjF8eglPAJMn7NGxYidhZxF%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya44.2285-ro-0-fo100!7i10240!8i5120

The following scenes begin at PPG Place downtown. The glass tower of PPG is the most prominent building in downtown Pittsburgh. It was modeled on the Victoria Tower that we saw in the posting on this blog, "London".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Tower#/media/File:Victoria_Tower_from_the_south-west.jpg


https://www.google.com/maps/@40.440008,-80.0029945,3a,75y,291.29h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1stEtTIlPPMJz6CGwrO_TYdA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DtEtTIlPPMJz6CGwrO_TYdA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D297.10925%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

This is the Heinz Memorial Chapel, Pittsburgh is the home of Heinz Ketchup. It is next to the well-known Cathedral of Learning, at the University of Pittsburgh. The Cathedral of Learning holds classrooms and is that could be described as a Gothic skyscraper.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4452963,-79.9521381,3a,75y,78.46h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sSyeBa5OCwCs49YoJOSoR9Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DSyeBa5OCwCs49YoJOSoR9Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D74.98543%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

This is further from downtown Pittsburgh, the area known as Shadyside.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4597115,-79.9207736,3a,75y,173.82h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sMfXeupk1terwZHHXienJgg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DMfXeupk1terwZHHXienJgg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D175.28883%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Here is a view of downtown, from what is known as the West End Overlook.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4459249,-80.0342313,3a,75y,112.01h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s6GP1S3kvEWcnyl_ryHeDKg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D6GP1S3kvEWcnyl_ryHeDKg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D117.978516%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i3328!8i1664

Adjacent to downtown along the Allegheny River is an older district of the city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4538918,-79.981261,3a,75y,26.5h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sZ6BtSNJjUB37BrqgiIz63A!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DZ6BtSNJjUB37BrqgiIz63A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D20.779554%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

The section known as Allegheny West is across the Allegheny River from downtown Pittsburgh.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4522222,-80.0075978,3a,75y,346.57h,90t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sqsDNd3DEsfuOuw-ZI0CpRg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DqsDNd3DEsfuOuw-ZI0CpRg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D346.56677%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Pittsburgh is not without controversy. Being in a valley where two rivers meet means that it is vulnerable to flooding when the snow melts in the spring. 180 km (110 miles) to the northeast of the city on the Allegheny River, which is one of the two rivers that meet at Pittsburgh, a dam was built across the river.

The dam is known as Kinzua Dam, in northern Pennsylvania. The dam accomplished it's objective to prevent flooding. It also generates electricity because of it's hydroelectric potential.

But the dam created a large reservoir or lake behind it. The land along the Allegheny River upstream from the dam had belonged to the native Seneca Indians. They had been given the land by George Washington, the first president of the U.S. There was an important cemetery there, and this meant that it all had to be relocated. This is a familiar story in Niagara Falls because Tuscarora Indian land had to be taken for the reservoir at the power plant there, which was built at around the same time. The following scenes are of Kinzua Dam.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8373633,-79.0045205,3a,75y,72.82h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sAuYYWGyQueheeRF2qyfmpQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DAuYYWGyQueheeRF2qyfmpQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D67.45755%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656