Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH, the second largest city of Pennsylvania, and the leading iron, steel, and glass manufacturing centre of the United States, lies at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela, which unite here to form the Ohio, 250 miles west by north of Philadelphia. The business quarter of the city is built on a nearly level triangular plain, between the two rivers, measuring about three quarters of a mile on each side back to the hills which rise to the east.



Plan of Pittsburgh.

The manufacturing establishments stretch for a distance of 7 miles up the Allegheny, 7 up the Monongahela, and 2 down the Ohio, and occupy the strip of low ground usually a few hundred feet broad between the river banks and the hills which generally face them. The slope of the hills to the east of the business quarter is closely built with residences and retail stores for the distance of a mile and a half, but the summits, 400 or 500 feet high, are partially unoccupied. Beyond the hills extends a rolling country which, for a space of about 5 miles long by 2 wide is occupied by the villas of the citizens. The hills facing the rivers are generally precipitous, and vary in height from 300 to 600 feet, but at different points they recede from the river banks and afford sites for the suburbs of Lawrenceville (on the Allegheny), Hazlewood, and Birmingham (on the north and south banks respectively of the Monongahela), which are within the municipality of Pittsburgh, and (on the north bank of the Allegheny and Ohio) for the city of Allegheny, which, with its separate municipal government and population of 78,000 inhabitants, is commercially and socially a part of Pittsburgh. The two cities together cover an irregular space of 9 miles between the extreme eastern and western points, with a breadth varying from 2 to 4 miles.

From the character of its site Pittsburgh would naturally be very attractive, but the free use of the bituminous coal which has been the principal agent in its development has so spoiled its beauty as to give it the name of the Smoky City. Not only do the manufacturing quarters show long lines of smoke-stained buildings, but the business quarter, which is composed of rather narrow streets laid out early in the century, is mainly constructed of brick and iron, and in spite of the presence of some fine public buildings in granite and brown stone—the municipal hall, the petroleum exchange, the new United States post office and court-house (1884), the new county court-house (1884), &amp;c.—has a generally grimy and unattractive appearance. A better opinion of the wealth and taste of

the city is obtained from a view of the suburban quarters of the East End and the parks and residence quarters of Allegheny. And, all disfigurement and dirtiness notwithstanding, it is full of interesting and striking sights. The interiors of its rolling-mills and glass-houses, and the views of the city from the surrounding hills, with the manufacturing quarters marked out by their smoke by day and their fires by night, are of a unique and picturesque character. Along the rivers are fleets of steamers towing barges laden with coal for consumption at this point and for shipment to the cities lower down. Joining the various quarters of the city are ten bridges for ordinary traffic and four railway viaducts, among which the Point Bridge and the Smithfield Street Bridge are fine examples of engineering in iron. Six inclined-plane railways afford access to the summits of the high hills.