Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sits where the feed streams of the Ohio join in the Kanawha Section of the Appalachian Plateaus. The rugged setting gives rise to high views from Mt. Washington1 within the city, especially from the Duquesne Incline, a tourist and commuter funicular railway, and many sets of stairways. The rivers are crossed by numerous bridges. The region developed around nearby coal, iron and petroleum extraction, and derivative refining and forging industries but these are of lesser importance today. Marking that heritage, the tallest building is the U.S. Steel Building at 64 stories. It was the first building to use liquid within its columns so convection cooling could help to fight fires. Also in the central business district (the Golden Triangle) is One PPG Place, a square, glass-fronted tower with spires topping each corner, and similar, shorter, buildings about the same plaza. The Cathedral of Learning is a 42 story centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh, built in 1936. It features a monumental Commons Room, four stories tall, and 17 Nationality Rooms, each architected in the manner of a different culture. Yet older are: Two Mellon Place, topped by chapel-like towers and filmed in the video for the song, 'Black and Yellow'; and the Allegheny County Courthouse, with a 250 foot Romanesque Tower. The courthouse is connected to the jail by the 'Bridge of Sighs.' 2 Popular destinations within the city include the Andy Warhol Museum, honoring its native artist, and the Carnegie Science Center. The metropolitan area has 2.316 million residents.3
| Year | Population | Political entity |
| 2000 CE | 2,359,0003| United States of America | |
External references
Pittsburgh skyline and river-view, Duquesne Incline funicular in the foreground
Historical maps
Footnotes
1. It is hill sized.
2. Information about buildings is from Emporis.com, accessed 3/23/2013. The Bridge of Sighs goes over a street, not a river. Two Mellon Place is also called the Union Trust Building, and the connection to the Wiz Khalifa song is documented under a Wikipedia article under that name for the structure.
3. Metropolitan population from world-gazetteer.com, accessed 3/2/2013.
