Pittsburgh tourist information

Highways
The main highway connecting Pittsburgh to the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) on the east is I-376, locally known as the "Parkway East," while I-279 (called either the "Parkway North" or the "Parkway West," depending on its location relative to Downtown) connects the city with points north and west. I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike), I-79, and I-70, roughly form a triangular-shaped "beltway," but its distance from the city center and the need to exit and enter each leg in order to continue circling the city render it impractical as a beltway. Navigation around Pittsburgh can be accomplished via the Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Belt System.

International Airport
The city is served by Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay Township. Allegheny County Airport handles 139,000 general aviation flights a year.

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Bridges
Pittsburgh is a city of bridges - 446 in total. Pittsburgh has more bridges than Venice, Italy, which has historically held the title of "City of Bridges". Around 40 bridges cross the three rivers near the city. The southern "entrance" to Downtown is through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and over the Fort Pitt Bridge. A bridge also carries the PATransit 42-S/47-L subway lines across the Monongahela River. All told, over 2,000 bridges dot the landscape of Allegheny County.

Port Authority of Allegheny County, commonly known as the Port Authority, but often erroneously referred to by its former nickname "PAT" or "PAT Transit," is an urban mass transit system in the United States. Port Authority runs a network of inter- and intracity bus routes, two funiculars (more commonly known as "inclines") on Mount Washington (used primarily by tourists rather than a means of commuting), and a subway/busway system.

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Amtrak
The city has Amtrak intercity rail service at Penn Station, as well as various freight railroads. Current railroads include Norfolk Southern, CSX and Amtrak.

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At the site of present-day Pittsburgh, in 1754, the French built Fort Duquesne. During the French and Indian War, British General John Forbes occupied the fort. He ordered the construction of Fort Pitt, named after British Secretary of State William Pitt the Elder. He also named the settlement between the rivers "Pittsborough."

Fort Pitt
During Pontiac's Rebellion, Ohio Valley and Great Lakes tribes besieged Fort Pitt for two months. Colonel Bouquet defeated Pontiac's forces in the Battle of Bushy Run.

Following the American Revolution, the village of Pittsburgh continued to grow. One of its earliest industries was building boats for settlers to enter the Ohio Country. The year 1794 saw the short-lived Whiskey Rebellion.

The War of 1812
The War of 1812 cut off the supply of British goods, stimulating American manufacture. By 1815, Pittsburgh was producing significant quantities of iron, brass, tin and glass products. By the 1840s, Pittsburgh was one of the largest cities west of the Allegheny Mountains. A great fire burned over a thousand buildings in 1845, yet the city rebuilt. By 1857, Pittsburgh's nearly 1,000 factories burned 22,000,000 bushels of coal yearly.

The American Civil War boosted the city's economy with increased production of iron and armaments. Steel production began by 1875, when the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock began to make steel rail using the Bessemer process.

U.S. Steel Corporation
In 1901, the U.S. Steel Corporation formed. By 1911, Pittsburgh was producing between a third and a half of the nation's various types of steel. The city's population swelled to half a million, many of whom were immigrants from Europe. During World War II, Pittsburgh produced 95 million tons of steel. By this time, the pollution of the burning coal and steel production created a black fog (or smog).

Renaissance II
Following the war, the city launched a clean air and civic revitalization project known as "Renaissance II." The industrial base continued to expand through the 1960s, but beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, the steel industry in the region imploded, with massive lay-offs and mill closures. Beginning in the 1980s, the city shifted its economic base to services, tourism, medicine and high technology. During this transition, the city population has shrunk from 680,000 in 1950 to 330,000 in 2000.