June 20, 2013
The week's top five must-sees,
delivered to your inbox.
Features include interactive map, in-depth stories, and more.
Download now. »
The week's top five must-sees,
delivered to your inbox.
|
Description
Pittsburgh is the seat of Allegheny County and with a population of 307,484 is the second-largest city in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a metropolitan CSA population of 2,661,369 it is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia and the 22nd-largest in the U.S. Pittsburgh is known as both "the Steel City" for its more than 300 related businesses and "the City of Bridges" for its world record 446 bridges. The city also features 29 skyscrapers, two inclined railways, a pre-revolutionary fortification, and the source of the Ohio at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny. This vital link of the Atlantic coast and the Mid-west cuts through the mineral-rich Alleghenies and made the area coveted by the French and British empires, Virginia, Whiskey Rebels, Civil War raiders and media networks.
Legendary for its steel, Pittsburgh also led innovations and industries in aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, appliances, sports, transport, computing, retail, autos and electronics. This creative wealth placed Pittsburgh third in corporate headquarter jobs for much of the 20th century, second only to New York in bank assets with more stockholders per capita than any other U.S. city. America's 1980s shift from heavy industry to a service economy laid-off millions from the area's sprawling steel mills and electronics/appliances factories. The diaspora of "blue collar" workers was joined by thousands of "white collar" employees when multi-billion dollar corporate raids relocated the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters of Gulf Oil, Sunbeam, Rockwell and Westinghouse. This status as a world industrial and banking center, its "melting pot" of industrial immigrant workers, and top 10 rank among the largest cities in the U.S. until 1950 and metros until 1980 has left the region with a plethora of internationally-regarded museums, medical centers, parks, research infrastructure, libraries and a vibrantly diverse cultural district.
(via Freebase)
|
