Pittsburgh – a City of Great Stories

Dear lilioftheworld.com reader, this is Dani, your co-editor. Today I want to present to you the amazing American city of Pittsburgh. A city I am sure you will fall in love with at first sight and you will crave to visit as soon as the situation calms down and we start to travel again. Enjoy the following couple of paragraphs “cause yinz guys deserve it*” – Pittsburgh – a City of Great Stories.

Prolog

Pittsburgh is a city in a region that many refer to as the Atlantic Midwest. It covers most of Allegheny county in Western Pennsylvania. Moreover, some people refer to the region as “the Rust belt”, given the fall of the steel industry in the 70s. Pittsburgh celebrated its bicentennial back in 2016. Americans call it “The city of champions” and this was the original title for my post, but Pittsburgh has so much more to offer, as you will find out, thus I renamed the post to simply “Pittsburgh – a city of great stories”.

Things to do (or more appropriately in this case) Pittsburgh is a city of:

• Views
• Artists
• Champions
• Entrepreneurs, bankers and philanthropes
• Scientists, technocrats and innovations
• Bulgarians
• Amazing people
• Great food
• Great attractions

And without further due, let me get started

Welcome to Pittsburgh – a City of Great Stories

Given its location, Pittsburgh is reachable by air, road, water and rail. The area is served by two airports. Specifically, Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) and Allegheny County Airport (AGC). The latter is the smaller one and it is home to general and business aviation only. The former, however, is the bigger international airport. It offers seasonal flights to Frankfurt Germany. Condor operates those flights twice a week from May to October. Furthermore, British Airways connects Pittsburgh with London Heathrow four times per week year-round. The British fly their new and shiny Boeing 787-8 aircraft, which are partially Pittsburghese, but more on that later. There are daily flights to all US hub airports, operated by all major airlines. Specifically, United, Delta, American, Southwest, Spirit, Frontier, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines fly to PIT.

Amtrak offers train service from New York City and Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Additionally, Megabus, Flixbus and Greyhound have daily operations to/from Washington DC, New York City, Philadelphia and others. But ultimately there is a view that welcomes everyone to Pittsburgh – a City of Great Stories.

Views

Pittsburgh International Airport is located 20-ish miles south-west of the city. If you follow highway I-376 to get to the city, the last tunnel before the entering the city is called “Fort PITT Tunnel”. The bridge on the other end of the tunnel passes over Monongahela river and gets you straight into the heart of the city. Unfortunately, the following picture was taken in January and cannot show the full beauty of the city.

Nonetheless, definitely take the Duquesne incline and get to the top of the city. This is the place where most pictures of Pittsburgh have been taken. You will see the point where the three rivers merge. Specifically, Monongahela river and Allegheny river get into Ohio river. The place is memorated by a point with a huge fountain. Naturally, they call the park “Point park”. Right behind the park are the ruins of the original Pittsburgh, founded by the French officer Duquesne.

The yellow metal bridges on Allegheny river are one of the signatures of Pittsburgh – a City of Great Stories. The city was one of the biggest producers of steel worldwide. The latter explains why the city still holds the Guinness world record for the city with highest number of bridges – more than 450. As you can see, some bridges share the same design. This was intentional – the city had cheap resources and didn’t want to spend money on design and engineering; thus some bridges shared the design.

Artists

One of the biggest stars of Pittsburgh is Wiz Khalifa. The rapper is originally from a very poor neighborhood, namely Homewood. He had a very difficult childhood, as many other kids in the area. His iconic song “black and yellow” made him millionaire. The interesting bit is that the video for the song is shot in Pittsburgh – a City of Great Stories. Try to watch the video carefully and compare it with some of the pictures I posted in this article – you will find a number of objects in the video.

For example, the chimneys of Homestead are often visible in the video. They are situated in a southern suburb of the city. The company US Steel built them for a steel mill they had in there. The mill does not exist anymore, but they kept the chimneys.

The song is called “black and yellow” for a reason – the colors of Pittsburgh are black and yellow. They appear on the coat of arms of the city. Moreover, all sports teams of the city have their jerseys in black and yellow.

Another famous artist, who was born and raised in Pittsburgh, is Andy Warhol. He is the father of what we call today “pop art”. Furthermore, he was an illustrator, film director and producer. His childhood house exists even today and is used by undergrads of University of Pittsburgh as dormitory. Specifically, the house is located at 3252 Dawson str. in South Oakland, Pittsburgh, 15213. There is a huge museum of his art in the Theater District of Pittsburgh. It is worth visiting.

Champions

And as I have been writing about the famous people, who lived in Pittsburgh, I cannot skip the sports teams. The Steelers are the football team. They have won Super Bowl six times and the team holds the Guinness world record for fan bars worldwide – more than 11 000. The Penguins are the hockey team of the city. They have won Stanley cup five times. One of the owners of the club today Is Mario Lemieux. He used to play for the team in the past. Furthermore, the Pirates are the baseball team, but they are not as famous, as the other two. The Panthers are the team of the University of Pittsburgh. The football Panthers share one stadium with the Steelers – Heinz Field. The nickname of Pittsburgh in the US is “the City of Champions”.

Entrepreneurs, bankers and philanthropists

If you have paid attention, yes – the stadium of the Steelers is called “Heinz Field”. It is named after the ketchup brand Heinz. The Heinz family are originally from Pittsburgh and the first factory is within the city limits. In addition, there are two huge illuminated ketchup bottles on the stadium and every time the Steelers have a touchdown, the bottles go upside down and the ketchup from them “spills” over. Most of the original factory is remodeled today and serves as residential building. Furthermore, another part of it hosts the daycare “Sarah Heinz House”.

Two of the most famous entrepreneurs of Pittsburgh are Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon. The former is the famous Carnegie, who built libraries throughout the world. He also donated the money to build the Piece Palace in Hague, the Netherlands. The latter is the building that hosts the International Court of Justice, as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration – both of which are part of the United Nations. Andrew Mellon is a banker. He inherited the bank from his father. The “Bank of New York  Mellon – BNY” exists even today. Multiple towers in Pittsburgh downtown are occupied by BNY. The Mellon family donated their mention and hosts Chatam University today.

Industry

Pittsburgh cannot run away from its steel industry. The headquarters of two of the largest producers of steel and aluminum worldwide are still in Pittsburgh. Specifically, US Steel makes steel. Their HQ building is the tallest in the city. The skyscraper is made out of innovative steel they developed – the metal pieces do not have to be painted and can sustain the effect of the weather conditions. This explains the brown-ish (rust-ish) color of the building. Similarly, Alcoa (or Aluminum Company of America) produces aluminum to this day. The founder of Alcoa is Charles Martin Hall. He discovered the process of smelting aluminum.

A fun fact – all of the houses in Pittsburgh have a bathroom in the basement. Moreover, they have backdoors that get you straight into the basement. The reason is that when the steel workers got home from work, they were very dirty. They went straight into the bathroom in the basement to take a shower. Then they used the indoor stairs to get into the house and have dinner with their families.

Scientists, technocrats and innovations

The steel industry collapsed in the 70s and the city lost a lot of its jobs and money. The city council got together and decided to develop educational institutions with focus on economy and STEM (science, technology, engineering and medicine). This explains the high number of universities – two research institutions, four or five smaller universities and numerous community colleges. Moreover, Carnegie Mellon University has the best school for Computer Science. The creator of Captcha and Duolingo is professor at CMU. The robotics lab won a DARPA challenge for self-driving cars 15-ish years ago. The prize was 2 million USD for continuous research on self-driving cars. This explains the high number of self-driving vehicle companies in the city. Uber, ArgoAI, Aurora and Bosch turned the city into a live lab.

The beauty of this is the fact that one can see the future today. Surprisingly, there have been no accidents with the self-driving vehicles. The fun side of it is that if you call your regular Uber, you may get a self-driving one. The experience is once in a lifetime. There is a screen in the car that shows the traffic the way the car “sees” it. One can take a selfie onboard and post it on social media. Another reason the companies picked the city are the bridges, the four seasons and the poor quality of the road network.

University to be proud of

UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) is one of top five medical centers in the US. The doctors and nurses of UPMC take care of the president of Zimbabwe. Moreover, Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a surgery at UPMC as well. Furthermore, University of Pittsburgh owns the highest educational building in the western hemisphere. The official name of the building is “Cathedral of Learning”. The nickname is “Cathy”. Some students call it affectionately “Mordor” or “Hogwarts”. The interior is reminiscent of a Gothic cathedral. Do not miss the chance to get a picture inside, as well as to get on the 36-th floor. The view to the city is stunning.

PPG Aerospace produces the famous electrically dimming windows on the shiny Boeing 787 Dreamliner. PPG Industries fully owns PPG Aerospace. Their HQ is in Pittsburgh. They have been working on and producing glass for very many years. This is why their HQ looks like the glass castle of Cinderella. There is no way to miss it, when you go to Pittsburgh downtown. It is located next to Market Square. Furthermore, today PPG makes paints, including the special paint for airplanes. Interesting enough, the white color of the airplanes of British Airways is done with paint from PPG.

Bulgarians

The first Bulgarians arrived in the city more than a century ago. At the boom of the steel industry Pittsburgh was a magnet for people from Eastern Europe. They had the physical strength and the hardworking attitude for the job. This is why many Bulgarians, Polish, Croatians, Slovaks and Serbians immigrated into the city. They started their own clubs – places where they preserved a piece of their own country and culture. The Bulgarian Club was founded in 1930 in Homestead – a neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where a steel mill was operating. Furthermore, the original building was small and resembled a “mehana” (pub). The location is not far from the chimneys from the video of Wiz Khalifa.

But Bulgarians are famous for educating their kids. This is how in the 30s a Bulgarian had a bank in Homestead and another one had a bakery. He owned more than 20 trucks that he used to deliver his bread and pastries around town . The location of the club never changer. Even the original bar of the “mehana” was kept until 2017, when the room, where the bar was, was remodeled. And, once again, the remodeling took place, because the Bulgarian school grew in terms of number of students and the room needed more space for desks. Student desks displaced the bar – something uncommon in Bulgaria.

Amazing people

The people of Pittsburgh are simply amazing. Moreover, they are always willing to help anyone and everyone. Fred Rogers is one of the more notable people of Pittsburgh. He hosted his famous show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”. Moreover, the show ran from 1966 to 2001. Millions of American kids grew with Mr Rogers and his educational show. It is the predecessor of Sesame street, if you will. The set for his show is kept intact and can be visited in WQED, in the district of Oakland in Pittsburgh. But Mr Rogers became extremely famous for the letter he wrote to the US Senate.

In 1966 President Johnson drafted a budget of 20 million USD to create a public broadcasting service (TV channel), namely PBS. Furthermore, his successor, namely President Nixon, tried to ditch the project. This is when Mr Rogers sent a letter to the senators and advocated for the need of PBS. In response to his letter, the Senate awarded an even bigger budget of 22 million USD. Moreover, in 1970 the president appointed Fred Rogers as chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.

Great food

I already talked about the Heinz company. Another specialty of Pittsburgh are the sandwiches, which are also full with French fries. The story dates back to the 40s, when the truck drivers, who worked for the steel industry, had no time for lunch. Thus, they used to stop by into the small fast food place of Primanti Brothers. The made amazing sandwiches and fries. The drivers complained that they had no time to sit down in the place and have proper lunch, thus the owners started putting the fries in the sandwiches. This is how the drivers could drive with one hand and hold the sandwich with the other one. Moreover, the famous German brand Hofbrauhaus has a brewery in Pittsburgh – it is the best place for German beer, schnitzel and pretzels.

Great attractions

Another famous family in Pittsburgh is the Kaufmann family. They owned stores for food and clothes. Moreover, the jewel in the crown was the 11-floor store in Pittsburgh downtown. In the early 30s Edgar Kaufmann hired the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright to remodel his office in the store. Edgar liked the work of Wright so much that he hired him to build a weekend house for the family 40 miles east of the city. Wright started working on the house. The budget was 36 000 USD. He designed and built the house, as well as the furniture inside. The house today is known as Falling Water due to its distinctive architecture and the waterfall on the ground floor.

A masterpiece

The house is truly a masterpiece and it was way ahead of its time. Natural products like stone and wood are interwoven together to bring a very warm and comfortable impression of the place. In fact, the sofa in the living room is very futuristic and ahead of its time – it has no legs on the ground. The son of Edgar – Edgar Jr had his bedroom on the top floor. Wright created a special stand for books, next to the bed of the kid. It is reminiscent of today’s tablet holders, but it was unheard of back then. The house has infinity pool and separate building, which acts as guest house and garage.

Edgar asked the architect for a desk in his office in the house. The architect argued that the desk will prevent the window in that room from opening. The rumor has it that Edgar said “You want me to sign you a check for the house, right? I need a desk to do so!”. He got his desk but to this day the desk has a huge hole, used to open the window. The final sum of the project was more than 300 000 USD. When Kaufmann asked for the reason about the 10-fold increase of the price, Frank Lloyd Wright famously said “You hired me to build you a house. I built you a masterpiece”. The house is worth visiting.

*Yinz is second-person plural pronoun. It is a typical Pitsburghese slang.

If you enjoyed this story about Pittsburgh, please read about my other adventures:

• The Thousand Islands article
• The story about the San Francisco Bay Area
• Miami – My Independence Day Weekend in Paradise
• Hong Kong
• A Weekend in Seattle

I think that that’s it! In conclusion, I want to thank You for visiting Pittsburgh with me!

Any comments / remarks / notes / recommendations are welcome!