With its hills, rivers, bridges and densely built historic neighborhoods, Pittsburgh is an exceptionally photogenic city.  There are many vantage points from which to see it, some well-known, others well off the beaten path.

The quintessential panoramic view is from Mount Washington, directly across the Monongahela River from Downtown Pittsburgh, which lies on a triangle of land formed by the juncture of the Mon and the Allegheny. Together they form the Ohio, which meets the Mississippi at Cairo, Ill.

From the four public overlooks on Mount Washington’s Grandview Avenue, on a clear day you can see … well, not to Cairo, but much of Pittsburgh and its surrounding suburbs. To the west is the winding Ohio; to the east, look for the University of Pittsburgh’s Gothic-style tower — completed in 1937 and early on dubbed the Cathedral of Learning — in Oakland.

Across the river, clustered within the triangle, are the city’s Downtown office towers, dating to the late 19th century. They rise above Mon riverfront buildings that once served as warehouses for goods awaiting shipment down the Ohio and Mississippi. Two centuries ago, Pittsburgh was a prominent gateway to the West, and boatbuilding one of its largest industries. Flatboats and keelboats carried travelers into the interior; sailing ships, built in and around Pittsburgh, carried rye whiskey and flour to Europe.

In the mid to late 20th century, Pittsburgh city planners began to shape the skyline and protect views by requiring Downtown’s tallest buildings be erected at the center; others must be built with heights stepping down to the rivers. The most distinctive, from a distance, are PPG Place, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee with four turrets mimicking London’s Houses of Parliament building, and the 70-story, triangle-shaped U.S. Steel Tower, Downtown’s tallest.

From your perch on Mount Washington, youcan see is only a small fraction of the city’s approximately 120 bridges, more than any other city, including Venice. Because of its topography and its engineering and steel companies, Pittsburgh is the bridge capital of the world. Western Pennsylvania designs, builds and exports bridges, and bridge engineers from around the world come here annually for the International Bridge Conference.

Most of Pittsburgh’s prominent bridges are painted yellow-gold because the city’s official colors are black and gold, chosen in 1899 — black for the coal and iron industries and gold for the wealth they brought to the city. Black and gold — also the colors of the city’s professional sports teams — appear, too, on the family crest of William Pitt the Elder, in whose honor the city was named in 1759.

So there’s a lot to see from Mount Washington. But how to get there?

The best way is to take one of the city’s passenger inclines or funiculars, which connect Mount Washington with the South Side. There were 17 inclines all over the city in the late 19th century. Before the automobile, they provided transportation for millworkers, housewives and schoolchildren, along with a sprawling network of city-owned steps that also serve as sidewalks. While many flights of wooden or concrete steps still connect streets and neighborhoods, only two inclines remain, the Monongahela, built in 1869, and the Duquesne, built in 1877.

The Monongahela Incline connects Mount Washington to Station Square, a shopping and entertainment district built around the former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad’s opulent terminal. It usually is reached via the blue-painted Smithfield Street Bridge, a National Historic Landmark designed by Gustav Lindenthal, completed in 1883 and restored in 1994. A covered wooden bridge on this site burned during the city’s Great Fire of 1845.
The Duquesne Incline, best reached by car or bicycle from Station Square Drive, has a large parking lot at its base. Take the Duquesne for a good overview of the juncture of the rivers — the Point, as Pittsburghers call it — and the Monongahela for a better vista of Downtown buildings.

The best vantage points

The view from Mount Washington is one of 10 we’ve selected for our Pittsburgh Vistas map. Most Pittsburghers have their favorites; these are just a few of the countless many.

•  Visitors arriving from green suburbia through the darkened passage of the Fort Pitt Tunnel often are stunned by the bright-by-day, glittering-by-night urban panorama suddenly before them as they emerge onto the Fort Pitt Bridge.

•  For a straight-on view of the Point and an overview of the North Side, one of the best places to stand is on the West End Overlook, a public parklet where a trellised, serpentine walkway opens up to a spectacular scene.

•  The view from the public overlook on two-block Catoma Street in Fineview is notable for its wide, dramatic vista of the North Side, Downtown and Mount Washington. At night, a floating temple appears in the middle ground — the illuminated top of Allegheny General Hospital.

•  The North Shore has several options for views of the Allegheny River and its three sister spans — the Roberto Clemente (Sixth Street), Andy Warhol (Seventh Street) and Rachel Carson (Ninth Street) bridges — and Downtown rising in the background. See it all from PNC Park or the North Shore Riverfront Park and its water steps and esplanade.

•  Bessemer Court at Station Square has boats, trains and a retired Bessemer converter in the foreground, Downtown in the background.

•  Along Crawford Street in the Hill District, the Mellon Arena dome looms large in the foreground of Downtown. Built as the Civic Arena in the early 1960s, it’s a Modernist icon that preservationists are trying to save as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ new home rises nearby.

•  The Hot Metal Bridge over the Mon is a good vantage point for walkers and cyclists, who can stop mid-span for a view of the Mon, Downtown, Hazelwood and the South Side.

•  There are excellent views of the South Side and its hidden enclaves from points all over the South Side Slopes, the hillside above the South Side Flats. We like the one from the corner of 12th and Pius Streets — not the highest view but one that gives a sense of neighborhood and community.

Patricia Lowry can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 412-263-1590.

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