City of Pittsburgh history

In the period from 1790 to 1810, arguably the most important industry in Pittsburgh was boat building.

In 1811, Robert Fulton launched the first steamboat, the New Orleans.

That year, Pittsburgh received a charter as a borough and became a city in 1816.

The best sign of the city’s gradual transformation from a commercial to a manufacturing center was a visitor’s description in 1818: “Dark dense smoke and a hovering cloud of vapor.” It would get much worse over the next 125 years.

In 1825, the Erie Canal connected the Hudson River to Buffalo, spurring the growth of Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.

When Charles Dickens visited in 1842. he observed: “Pittsburgh is like Birmingham in England… and is famous for its iron works.” Iron production began in the hinterlands, closer to sources of wood for charcoal; adequate veins of iron ore were found in Fayette, Somerset and Washington counties.

In 1854, the Pennsylvania Railroad opened, making travel to the area more convenient.

He patented his revolutionary air brake in 1869 and built Westinghouse Air Brake into one of the nation’s most successful and lucrative corporations.

In 1870, Judge Thomas A. Mellon established a private bank, T. Mellon & Sons.

In 1872, Carnegie organized a syndicate to construct a steel plant of 100,000 tons capacity on a site in Braddock.

Charcoal was first replaced by anthracite (hard coal) from Northeastern Pennsylvania, but by 1875 bituminous (soft) coal in the form of coke from Southwestern Pennsylvania provided over 50 percent of blast furnace fuel.

In 1877, the first great American railroad strike took place.

In 1886, he founded the Westinghouse Electric Company—at its peak the nation’s 13th largest industrial company.

A strike in 1892 at the Carnegie plant at Homestead, a few miles outside Pittsburgh, resulted in battles between the company-employed Pinkerton detectives and strikers.

The value of goods from Pittsburgh in 1900 was more than the value of goods from Detroit and Cleveland combined.

In 1901, Carnegie and Frick merged several companies into United States Steel Corp.

In 1905, the legislature was persuaded to pass a law allowing a one-time exemption to this rule, in order to combine Pittsburgh with its northern neighbor Allegheny.

In 1907, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the law was valid and Allegheny was annexed on December 9 of that year.

By 1910, Pittsburgh produced 25 million tons of steel; more than 60 percent of the nation’s total.

By 1911, Pittsburgh manufactured half of the nation’s steel.

In 1930, the population of Pittsburgh peaked at 699,817.

In 1957 it became the first American city to generate electricity by nuclear power.

After a strike in 1959, American companies began to import steel from other places, such as Japan.

In 1961, the Civic Arena, the world’s first civic auditorium with a retractable roof, opened.

By 1970, 75% of the corporations headquartered in Pittsburgh were gone.

He received his undergraduate education at Princeton, and earned a doctorate in political science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984.

In 1992, the world-class Pittsburgh International Airport opened.

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By 2000, 29 steel companies in Pittsburgh had declared bankruptcy.

Two new sports venues opened in 2001 on the north bank of the Allegheny opposite the Golden Triangle: PNC Park is home of the Pirates, the city’s professional baseball team, and Heinz Field houses the Steelers, its professional gridiron football team.

As Pittsburgh celebrated it 250th birthday in 2008, the city has once again put on a new face.

The Penguins, Pittsburgh’s professional ice hockey team, were scheduled to begin play in Consol Energy Center at the start of the 2010–11 season.

Bill joined that group shortly before his death in 2011, leaving more than $500 million to a variety of Pittsburgh institutions.