In 250 years, Pittsburgh has reinvented itself many times
When the first white man ventured across the Allegheny Mountains, water was the only superhighway.
"Coal was the driving factor in the 19th century. In the 21st century, it will be water," said Joel A. Tarr, Richard S. Caliguiri professor of urban and environmental history and policy at Carnegie Mellon University. "We are water rich. We have to develop that asset."
This would be yet another transformation for a region that has been reborn many times during the past two centuries -- from wilderness during the Revolutionary War to a commercial center before the Civil War to an industrial powerhouse by World War II. Its citizenry of immigrants created a mosaic of culture and traditions and became the source of labor for its myriad industries.
As Western Pennsylvania prepares to mark the 250th anniversary of the naming of Pittsburgh by Gen. John Forbes in 1758, historians said Pittsburgh is a continuing story of renewal.
It rebuilt after floods and adjusted to the decline of the steel industry, said historian David McCullough, who grew up in Point Breeze.
"The city didn't die," he said. "Great cities don't die."
The next renaissance is being built on language technology, artificial intelligence and robotics, said John Matsumura, associate director for research at Rand Corp.'s Pittsburgh office.
"A lot of applications-oriented centers are springing up. We're competing on a national level and winning," he said.
More than 7,000 technology firms in the region employ more than 207,000 people and account for 17.5 percent of the area's overall workforce, according to the Pittsburgh Technology Council. Their annual payroll is $10.8 billion.
Venture capital invested in emerging regional businesses last year was more than $256 million, according to the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.
Life sciences research -- propelled by the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University -- employs more than 117,000 people in 13 counties with a payroll of nearly $6 billion, according to the alliance.
"We have the technical lead. It's ours to lose to be a leader in the field of robotics," said Steve DiAntonio, director of strategic business development at the National Robotics Engineering Center, which develops leading edge automation technology for government and businesses.
In that sense, Pittsburgh is a gateway, just as it always has been.
River town
The British, French and Native Americans each wanted the area that came to be called Pittsburgh because of its location, said Holly A. Mayer, associate professor and chair of the history department at Duquesne University.
Water was absolutely vital to the city's transformation from wilderness outpost to industrial giant.
"It was important for trade, transportation and a major route to the West," Mayer said.
British forces led by Forbes captured Fort Duquesne in 1758 after carving a highway over the Alleghenies that came to be known as Forbes Road.
Forbes built his road in the summer of 1758, ordering construction of forts along the way, including Fort Ligonier. This assured that the Ohio Country, which also was claimed by Virginia, would remain part of Pennsylvania. The road linked the forks of the Ohio River with Philadelphia, enabling westward settlement.
But the winter of 1758-59 was one of the worst. Those who groan about today's road conditions might find it ironic that by spring of 1759, Colonial authorities "were getting complaints about the condition of the road," Mayer said.
Dubbed the Gateway to the West, Pittsburgh's impact on the country -- and the world -- is more extensive than many people realize, McCullough said.
"It is a jumping-off place. Lewis and Clark's boat was built there. The propeller for Lindbergh's plane was made there," he said.
"If you could pick a place to put down a lens to see the unfolding of our country, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better place than Pittsburgh."
The Bessemer process gave birth not only to the steel industry, but also "the railroad, the vertical city, big cities as we know them," McCullough said.
From 1880-1960, the city's peak industrial years, "it was the greatest industrial complex in the world for that period," said Perry Blatz, associate professor of history at Duquesne University, who specializes in U.S. history from 1850 to 1930.
At the height of the American war effort during World War II, the Pittsburgh area produced 27 percent of the nation's steel, according to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
"We really were the hearth of the nation," said Joe Rishel, a professor of history at Duquesne.
That did not happen without growing pains.
When the Pennsylvania Railroad cut wages 10 percent in June 1877 and other railroads followed suit, a group of workers met in the city's North Side to form the Trainsmen's Union.
Railroad workers walked off their jobs July 16, when the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages. Violence erupted and spread quickly after a militiaman was shot by a striker.
"I can't think of a more violent confrontation," Blatz said.
In Pittsburgh, fires razed 39 buildings, destroyed 104 locomotives and more than 1,200 freight and passenger cars. More than 20 people were shot and killed, he said.
Fifteen years later, members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers would be involved in a violent strike at a Carnegie Steel Co. plant in Homestead that left three Pinkerton detectives and nine workers dead.
Urban renewal
Bearing the scars of the industrial age, the city again faced change. This went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"We didn't invent urban renewal, but we got the jump. We didn't wait for the federal government. We were first out of the gate," said University of Pittsburgh history professor Edward Muller, who is writing a book on Pittsburgh's history with fellow Pitt professor Rob Ruck.
After World War II the city was dirty, its skies black with soot from mills that turned out steel around the clock. It was dark at noon.
City leaders reinstituted smoke-control ordinances suspended during the war. Businessman Richard King Mellon and Mayor David L. Lawrence formed an alliance that paved the way for the city's renaissance.
The city's use of eminent domain to create the Golden Triangle ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling from the high court laid out the parameters of eminent domain, saying a local government could condemn buildings as long as it intended to make public use of the land. The argument from the city's attorney won the case, said John Brosky, a retired state Superior Court judge.
"The city of Pittsburgh attorney was Annie Albern. She was a real strong woman, as a lawyer. She was no dumbbell. She was a good lawyer, well-versed in the law," Brosky said. "She came along and said the municipality can condemn all properties that are detrimental to the improvement of a particular place."
From death, rebirth
By the 1980s, Pittsburgh's backbone of steel turned to rust.
People like Jean Friday, 73, of Belle Vernon, who worked in the laboratory at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works for 26 years, measure their ancestry by the decades her family spent in the mills.
Friday's recently deceased aunt calculated that the family -- starting with Friday's great-grandfather, who immigrated from Ireland -- worked 600 years in the region's steel mills.
"Steel was really, historically, the basic industry. If you think back to the late 1800s, Carnegie and Frick ... 137 years it's been here," Friday said.
It seemed impossible that something so pervasive could simply disappear.
"It was unthinkable -- like a nightmare," she said.
Robert Luffy, though, is optimistic about the region's future. He is president and CEO of American Bridge Co., a company that embodies the region's transformation since the industrial age.
The Coraopolis-based firm was a fabricator of steel in its early days and now specializes in heavy construction and engineering.
American Bridge, established in 1900 in Ambridge, was part of U.S. Steel from 1901 to 1987 and now is privately owned. Some of its steel went into the longest bridges and the tallest buildings in the country.
"The next 30 to 40 years will see a shift from carbon-based energy sources," Luffy said. "If you look to the future, the universities could lead the way. We develop smarter people here to solve problems."
Pittsburgh, a city of firsts
1778: Hand's Hospital -- the nation's first federal hospital opens. It is built by Gen. Edward Hand to care for troops at Fort Pitt.
1850s: Petroleum refining -- Samuel Kier establishes the first successful petroleum refinery in the Western Hemisphere on Seventh Avenue near Grant Street.
1865: Union contract -- The first trade-union agreement in America was reached between the Sons of Vulcan and the local iron industry, ending an eight-month strike.
1869: Air brake -- The first air brake, invented by George Westinghouse, is demonstrated on a trip from Union Station in Pittsburgh to Steubenville.
1888, Aluminum -- The world's first production of commercial aluminum by the Pittsburgh Reduction Co., which later becomes the Aluminum Company of America.
1892: Pro football -- What is considered to be the first professional football game takes place at Recreation Park in the North Side. The Allegheny Athletic Association beats the Pittsburgh Athletic Club.
1893: Ferris Wheel -- The ride, invented by civil engineer George Washington Gale Farris, who lived in the North Side, makes its debut at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It is 264 feet high and can hold 2,000 passengers.
1903: World Series -- The Boston Pilgrims take the first modern World Series by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1905: Moving pictures -- Harry Davis and John P. Harris open the country's first all-motion picture house at 433-35 Smithfield St.
1920: Radio -- The world's first broadcast by a commercially licensed radio station was the Harding-Cox presidential election returns of Nov. 2, 1920, by KDKA Radio.
1924: Bingo -- Hugh J. Ward of Hazelwood takes the game he invented nationwide.
1948: Pollution -- The first recorded air pollution disaster occurs in Donora. Twenty people die over four days.
1953: Polio -- Dr. Jonas Salk, a University of Pittsburgh researcher and professor, reports success of a polio vaccine he and his staff developed.
1954: Educational TV -- WQED becomes the first community-sponsored educational television station in the country.
1957: Atomic power -- The world's first commercial atomic power plant opens in Shippingport for the Duquesne Light Co.
1962: Pull tabs -- Alcoa develops the pull tab for beer cans first used by Iron City Brewery.
1971: Mr. Yuk -- The international symbol as a sign of poison originated with the Poison Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
1982: Emoticons -- Carnegie Mellon University computer researcher Scott Fahlman typed 🙂 on a message board, creating the first Internet emoticon.
1989: Transplants -- Doctors at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital performed the world's first simultaneous heart, liver and kidney transplant.
Source: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Tribune-Review Research
Pittsburgh 250 events
A series of events, large and small, are planned next year in a 14-county area to celebrate the naming of Pittsburgh, including:
• The Tour of Pennsylvania -- a six-day bicycle race covering 500 miles. The final stage of the race will take place June 29 in Pittsburgh.
• Festival of Lights -- will transform buildings Downtown and in Oakland into works of art with light, sound and motion.
• Festival of Firsts -- will showcase performing and visual arts.
• Pittsburgh 250 and Fit -- a public health push aimed at getting 250,000 people in better shape.
• Closing the Gap -- a project to complete the Great Allegheny Passage and map and develop a statewide driving route following the Forbes Trail across Pennsylvania.
Source: Pittsburgh 250
Fort Ligonier events
Fort Ligonier will mark its 250th anniversary next year with several events, including:
• June 27-28: American Eagle Outfitters Tour of Pennsylvania
• Aug. 16-17: National Encampment of the Brigade of the American Revolution
• Oct. 11-12: Fort Ligonier Days
• Nov. 1: Conference on the Forbes Road: Jumonville/Ligonier
• Nov. 12: George Washington Friendly Fire Incident.
Source: Fort Ligonier
