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 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 
 1891. 
 
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Copyright, 1891, by J, B. Lippincott Company. 
 
 
PITTSBURGH. 
 
 Pittsburgil, the second city of Pennsylvania, 
 is built on a narrow strip of land where the Alle- 
 gheny and Monongahela rivers meet to form the 
 Ohio : it extends some 7 or 8 miles up the rivers, 
 and 2 or 3 miles do\vn the Ohio. Pittsburgh is by 
 rail 444 miles from New York, 354 from Phila- 
 delphia, and 468 from Cliicago. The business 
 Ijortion of the city is on a plain, less than a mile in 
 width, along the banks, while the hills, commanding- 
 delightful views, are covered with handsome resi- 
 dences. In this region, where the prevailing soft 
 shales and sandstones have lieen worn away by the 
 rivers to a depth of 500 or 600 feet, the horizontal 
 layers of coal are exposed, and access aiforded to 
 the coal-seams on the sides of the hills and at the 
 bottom of the valleys to an extent elsewhere 
 unknown ; the great Pittsburgh coal layer, 8 feet 
 thick, like a broad black band extends around the 
 city 300 feet above the river. Since the introduc- 
 tion of natural gas ( see below ) the f oi-mer sobriquet 
 of the ' smoky city ' is a misnomer ; the clearness 
 of the atmosphere has given an impetus to archi- 
 tecture, and the many new dwellings and business 
 houses are really models of beauty and solidity. 
 The court-house, costing $2,500,000, is of Quincy 
 granite, and is connected with the gaol by a ' bridge 
 of sighs. ' The government building cost $1,500,000, 
 and there are besides a city hall of white sand- 
 stone, a new Exposition Building, and numerous 
 churches, among which the large Roman Catholic 
 cathedral and Trinity Church { Episcopal ) deserve 
 notice. Pittsburgh possesses a good system of 
 schools, and is the seat of a Catholic college. Tlie 
 Carnegie free library was dedicated in 1890. The 
 three rivers are crossed by fifteen bridges, some 
 of them monuments of engiricering skill ; and the 
 
4 PITTSBURG H. 
 
 different parts of the city are also connected by a 
 dozen lines of cable, electric, and horse cars. 
 
 Pittsburgh's manufactures include everything 
 which can be made of iron, from a 58-ton gun to 
 nails and tacks ; steel in its various applications ; 
 all descriptions of glass and glassware ; silver and 
 nickel-plated ware ; Japan and Britannia ware ; 
 pressed tin, brass, bronzes ; earthenware, cracibles, 
 tire-pots, bricks ; furniture, wagons, and carriages ; 
 brushes, bellows, mechanical supplies of all kinds ; 
 natural-gas fittings, tools for oil and gas wells, &c. 
 The production of iron and steel in Pittsburgh and 
 the vicinity is about one-fifth of the total produc- 
 tion in the United States. The city contains 
 twenty-one blast-furnaces, which in 1889 produced 
 1,293,435 tons of pig-iron (a little less than one- 
 seventh of the amount of the whole country), and 
 thii-ty-three rolling-mills, twenty-seven of which 
 roll steel; their production in 1889 was 1,105,573 
 tons of steel, and 638,450 tons of 'rolled iron. Of 
 ■vvrought-iron pipe 350,000 tons, and of iron and 
 steel for structural purposes 65,000 tons were manu- 
 factured in 1890. There are forty-nine iron-foun- 
 dries, representing a capital of $10,000,000, two 
 mills for rolling copper, and a dozen manufactories 
 of white lead, lead paint, lead pipe, or shot. Of 
 glass-factories there are thirty-four where window- 
 glass is made, thirty-seven for flint and lime glass, 
 ten for lamp-chimneys, five for green bottle-glass, 
 and fifteen for prescription-vials. 
 
 Eight separate companies — with one directing 
 head — for manufacturing air-brakes, automatic 
 signals, electric light apparatus, and supplying 
 heat and light have a combined capital of 
 $23,170,000. The incandescent lamp has been 
 brought to the greatest state of perfection in this 
 city. Since about 1883 natural gas has been 
 universally used for domestic and manufacturing 
 purposes (see Gas-lighting, Vol. V. p. 105). 
 It is obtained fi-om isolated districts a few 
 miles in extent, witliin a radius of 20 miles 
 from the city. By drilling into the earth from 
 twelve to fifteen hundred feet a natural gas — 67 
 per cent, of which is methane — rushes from the 
 opening with a pressure of four or five hundred 
 pounds to the square inch, which is sufficient to 
 force it through pipes to the houses and factories 
 in the city. The purity of this gas, its great heat- 
 ing power, and its cleanliness make it a most excel- 
 lent substitute for coal for domestic and manufac- 
 turing purposes. Fifteen companies engaged in 
 
PITTSBURGH. 6 
 
 piping natural gas, most of which comes to 
 Pittsburgh, have an aggregate capital stock of 
 120,191,000. It is estimated that 7,500,000 cubic 
 feet of this gas are daily consumed in the city, and 
 that 1200 miles of pipe are required to convey it to 
 dwellings, warehouses, stores, factories, mills, &c. 
 
 The position of Pittsburgh on the eastern border 
 of the great Mississippi river-basin, and her facili- 
 ties for penetrating to every part by river and rail, 
 give her great natural advantages for trade, and as 
 a dep6t for exchange and trans-shipment of the pro- 
 duce that naturally comes to her as a centre. In 
 the river business over $9,500,000 are invested. Two 
 lines of packets ply on the Monongahela and three 
 on the Ohio. Seventy tow-boats and thousands of 
 coal-boats, barges, and flats are engaged in the 
 coal trade. In 1889 4,000,000 tons of coal were 
 sent by river to the southern states, while 16,000,000 
 tons more — making altogether about two-tliirds of 
 the yearly output of bituminous coal for the entire 
 state — were sent away by rail or consumed in 
 Pittsburgh itself. In the district there are 15,000 
 coke-ovens making 6,000,000 tons of coke. Twelve 
 district railroads centre here, six of wliich are trunk 
 lines. These lines reach out to all points of the 
 compass. The immense volume of transcontinental 
 business passing through Pittsburgh annually is 
 probably excelled by no city except perhaps 
 Chicago. Pittsburgh has twenty-seven national 
 banks and twenty state banks, with a total capital 
 of 114,856,750. The interests of Allegheny City 
 (q.v. ; pop. in 1890, 105,287), on the opposite bank 
 of the Allegheny River, though it is a separate 
 municipality, are in all respects identical with 
 those of Pittsburgh. 
 
 History. — In the early history of America the 
 site of Pittsburgh was a point of great interest, and 
 was familiarly known as the ' Gateway to the 
 West.' Here traders, settlers, and adventurers, 
 who had worked their way from Philadelphia by 
 a chain of forts, congregated, and here llat--boats 
 were built which carried them down the Ohio to 
 the unknown regions beyond. In 1754 a few Eng- 
 lish traders built a stockade at the point, but were 
 driven away by the French the following April. 
 The latter replaced the stockade by a fort, which, 
 in honour of the governor of Canada, they called 
 Duquesne. It was near the present outskirts of 
 the city that Braddock (q.v.) was surprised in 
 1755 ; and on October 15, 1758, General Grant and 
 his Hic;hlanders had reached the hill on which the 
 
6 PITTSBURGH. 
 
 court-house now stands when they were surrounded 
 by the Indians and nearly exterminated. The 
 following month, however, General Forbes took 
 possession of what remained of old Fort Duquesne, 
 the French having fled down the Ohio, leaving the 
 buildings in ruins. In 1759 the English commenced 
 a large and strong fortification, which, in honour 
 of the elder Pitt (see Chatham, Earl of), then 
 prime-minister, tliey called Fort Pitt. The fort is 
 said to have cost the English government £60,000. 
 The settlement became a borough in 1804, and in 
 1816 the borough was incorporated as the city of 
 Pittsburgh. Pop. (1810) 4768; (1840) 21,115; 
 (1870) 86,076 (with Birmingham, included soon 
 after, 121,799); (1880) 156,389; (1890) 238,617. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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