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A visit in November 1753 to Pittsburgh's Point gave George Washington another "first" to add to his list of accomplishments.
Upon his death in 1799, the Revolutionary War general and first president of the United States was eulogized as being "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Add "first" to write about the military importance of the spot where the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers join to form the Ohio.
"I spent some time in viewing the Rivers, and the Land in the Fork, which I think extremely well situated for a Fort, as it has the absolute Command for both Rivers," Washington wrote in his journal.
The history of Pittsburgh involves interconnected stories about making things -- glass, iron, petroleum products, steel, aluminum, packaged food -- in new and more efficient ways. It also is a story of struggles. The first fights were for physical possession of an area rich in natural resources and the waterways to transport them. The later struggles, which continue today, involve the often conflicting interests of workers and employers over how to share the region's wealth.
Washington was just 21 when he first saw the Forks of the Ohio, and he would make several more journeys to the Pittsburgh area over the next few years. This was the time when the French, British and Native American empires battled to control the interior of North America.
"It was a spur of land that everybody wanted. Control it and you could control the flow of goods -- and of settlers -- in the Ohio Valley. It was the original gateway to the West," said Dr. Holly Mayer, associate professor and chair of the History Department at Duquesne University.
While the English were the first to set up a military outpost at the Point in 1754, a larger French force, coming down from Canada, soon sent them packing.
A POINT WELL TAKEN
The building of Fort Duquesne began a four-year effort by the British and the colonial governments in Virginia and Pennsylvania to dislodge the French and gain control of the Point. While politicians in Williamsburg, Virginia's capital, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's capital, continued to feud over which colony should control the Ohio country, both agreed that the region definitely was not French.
Washington came back in 1754 and 1755 as part of military expeditions that failed to evict the French. British and colonial forces had better luck in 1758. Gen. John Forbes, with Washington serving as an aide, led the army that occupied the smoking ruins of Fort Duquesne. Facing a much larger enemy force, the French had burned their fort and fled down the Ohio.
The British built Fort Pitt, one of their most elaborate fortifications in North America. It proved its worth during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763, when it held out against a Native American siege.
During the Revolutionary War, Fort Pitt served as headquarters for American forces, who sought, with limited success, to protect frontier settlers from attacks by natives allied with the British.
The Fort Pitt Blockhouse, built in 1764, is all that is left standing of Fort Pitt. The brick and stone redoubt is the oldest building in the region.
After the Revolution, the area around Fort Pitt had one more brief period of martial importance. In the summer and fall of 1792, Major Gen. Anthony Wayne began to train the "Legion of the United States" -- the first United States Army -- at Fort Fayette, built along the Allegheny River side of the Point.
As the Point lost military importance, the adjoining community of Pittsburgh gained in importance as a trading center and home to small "manufactories." The Pittsburgh Gazette, the direct ancestor of this newspaper, began publication in 1786. Seeking to serve its audience of farmers and entrepreneurs, its pages included real estate offerings, business news, political stories and classified advertising.
GOING WITH THE RIVERS' FLOW
Few events were more important to the development of Pittsburgh than the decision by President Thomas Jefferson to acquire the Louisiana Territory, including New Orleans, from France in 1803.
While the rugged Allegheny Mountains had limited Pittsburgh's commercial ties to the East Coast, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers provided an inexpensive way to transport Pittsburgh goods and agricultural products as far as the Gulf of Mexico.
The early sophistication of local manufacturing is indicated by the decision of Nicholas Roosevelt, a partner of steamboat pioneer Robert Fulton, to build the 19th-century equivalent of a Boeing 747 here.
"With pleasure we announced that the Steam Boat lately built at this place by Mr. Roosevelt … fully answers the most sanguine expectations that were formed of her sailing," the Gazette told its readers on Oct. 18, 1811. The vessel was built at a shipyard on the banks of the Monongahela River, below the bluff now occupied by Duquesne University.
Abundant natural resources, especially coal and lumber, helped Pittsburgh develop its early industries, including glass making, iron production and ship building. The growth of manufacturing attracted new residents, who wanted to make their fortunes and were willing to overlook some of the early environmental problems: smoke-filled skies and polluted water.
"The chief distinction of Pittsburgh is not smoke, and it never was," Franklin Toker, professor of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote in his 1986 history of the community, "Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait."
"Instead, the chief distinction of Pittsburgh is work."
Add to that an ability to overcome adversity, like periodic flooding, which continued into the 1930s, and other disasters.
Like 19th century Chicago, Pittsburgh suffered from a devastating fire that, amazingly, appeared to have set the community back only a matter of months. As much as a third of the city was destroyed on a single day, April 10, 1845.
Four days after the fire, the newspaper -- then known as The Daily Gazette and Advertiser -- reported that rebuilding had begun. Within a month, several stores and warehouses had reopened and hundreds of others were under construction in the "Burnt District."
BUILDING A STEEL NATION
The construction of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, which carried canal boats between the eastern and western portions of the Pennsylvania Canal, and, more importantly, the completion in 1854 of the Pennsylvania Railroad's line through the Alleghenies linked Pittsburgh to Eastern markets.
During the Civil War, the Pittsburgh area supplied both troops and critical supplies for the Union Army, including artillery and ammunition.
The Allegheny Arsenal, located in what was then the separate community of Lawrenceville, had been producing munitions since 1814. In September 1862 it was the site of a horrible explosion that killed 79 workers, mostly young women.
Pittsburgh had to prepare for possible siege during the summer of 1863, when Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia invaded Pennsylvania. As an industrial and rail center, Pittsburgh seemed a likely target for Lee's fast-moving army. For several weeks in June thousands of residents dug ditches on Mount Washington, in Squirrel Hill and in other neighborhoods to fortify the city against an attack that never came.
In the years after the war, heavy industry -- led by steelmaking -- went through cycles of boom and bust. The rise of big business, like Andrew Carnegie's giant steel company, eventually was accompanied by the rise of large labor organizations. "Production and struggle were two major themes in Pittsburgh history," said Charles McCollester, retired professor of industrial and labor relations at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
During much of the 70-year period between the end of the Civil War and the Great Depression, industrial violence was common. While the best known fight is probably the pitched battle in 1892 between Carnegie workers and Pinkerton detectives at Homestead, a much bloodier confrontation took place in the Strip District in July 1877.
Engineers, conductors and brakemen employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad had walked off their jobs to protest new work rules and pay cuts. After the strikers stopped replacement workers from operating trains, the governor called out Philadelphia militia units to secure train yards. Faced by a stone-throwing crowd numbering in the thousands, the out-of-town soldiers opened fire. About 20 civilians and five soldiers were killed before the troops withdrew. For several days, mobs controlled city neighborhoods and destroyed millions of dollars in property, most of it belonging to the railroad.
Pittsburgh also played a role in peaceful union organizing. In November 1881, Samuel Gompers was among delegates from 12 states who gathered here to form the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, the direct predecessor of the American Federation of Labor.
At its historic meeting in Pittsburgh, the union alliance passed resolutions that eventually became cornerstones of modern labor policy. The federation sought a standard eight-hour day and bans on the use of convict and child labor. Delegates also pushed for laws requiring employers to care for workers hurt on the job -- the idea behind workers' compensation.
INDUSTRY AND IMMIGRATION
The 20th century saw Pittsburgh reach its peak as an industrial center and magnet for immigrants. Tens of thousands of European workers came to the region in the period before World War I. They were followed by large numbers of African-Americans, fleeing poverty in the South and seeking new opportunities in Southwestern Pennsylvania's factories and mines.
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal aided the cause of union organizing, while World War II and the prosperity that followed stoked the demand for the range of products made in Pittsburgh.
During the last decades of the 20th century and into the 21st century, however, many large manufacturing companies and big labor unions declined. Finance, education and healthcare all began to play more prominent roles in the region's economy. Brownfield sites once occupied by industrial giants -- including the site of Carnegie's Homestead Works -- became home to shopping and entertainment complexes, office buildings and laboratories.
It's not that the region has deindustrialized. United States Steel Corp., for example, remains a major metal producer at its Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock.
One visual indicator of the changing face of the region can be seen Downtown on the city's tallest skyscraper, the 64-story U.S. Steel Tower.
Last year, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center -- now the region's largest employer -- attached its UPMC logo on all three sides of the triangular landmark.
Len Barcousky can be reached at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or 724-772-0184.
Top: Pittsburgh circa 1848. Image courtesy of Heinz History Center.
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