The History of Pittsburgh – Sarah Hutchins Killikelly
Miss Killikelly’s book is more than a history of Pittsburgh, and all but serves as a history of Allegheny County, of which Pittsburgh has long been the metropolis, and which since the creation of the Greater Pittsburgh — brought about since this book was published — stands more than ever as the expression of the civic activities of its adjacent territory. With the chief facts of the early history of Pittsburgh, especially with those that center around Fort Duquesne, most readers of Pennsylvania history are fairly familiar. The story of these early days lose nothing in Miss Killikelly’s retelling. Very marvelous, indeed, has been the growth of this great Pennsylvania city. A record of its population in 1761 gives the number of men as 324, the women 92 and children 47, living outside the garrison; the number of houses with owners’ names was 220. At this period the town was divided into a Lower and Upper Town; the “King’s Gardens” stretching along the Allegheny, with a background of wheatfields. The residence of the commandant, a substantial brick building within the fort, was the most pretentious house. In 1815 the population had increased to nearly 10,000. The subsequent history of this city is too detailed to be summarized. Miss Killikelly tells the story in ample manner, yet without any overloading of unessential facts. Her pages throb with the active, busy life that has made Pittsburgh so pre-eminently a manufacturing center, and she tells the story of its commercial, industrial and cultural progress with the skill of a practiced writer. Pittsburgh is probably the most misunderstood city in the United States, and Miss Killikelly is entitled to cordial thanks for her entirely readable account.
The History of Pittsburgh
Format: Paperback.
The History of Pittsburgh.
ISBN: 9783849673789.
Available at amazon.com and other venues.
Basics on Pittsburgh (from Wikipedia):
Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. As of 2017, a total population of 305,704 lives within the city limits, making it the 63rd-largest city in the U.S. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania (behind Philadelphia), and the 26th-largest in the U.S.
Located at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio River, Pittsburgh is known as both “the Steel City” for its more than 300 steel-related businesses, and as the “City of Bridges” for its 446 bridges. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclines, a pre-revolutionary fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. The city developed as a vital link of the Atlantic coast and Midwest, as the mineral-rich Allegheny Mountains made the area coveted by the French and British empires, Virginians, Whiskey Rebels, and Civil War raiders.
Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in manufacturing of aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, sports, transportation, computing, autos, and electronics. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment; it had the most U.S. stockholders per capita. America’s 1980s deindustrialization laid off area blue-collar workers and thousands of downtown white-collar workers when the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters moved out. This heritage left the area with renowned museums, medical centers, parks, research centers, libraries, a diverse cultural district and the most bars per capita in the U.S.
Today, Google, Apple, Bosch, Facebook, Uber, Nokia, Autodesk, and IBM are among 1,600 technology firms generating $20.7 billion in annual Pittsburgh payrolls. The area has served as the long-time federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research and the nuclear navy. The area is home to 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The nation’s fifth-largest bank, eight Fortune 500 companies, and six of the top 300 U.S. law firms make their global headquarters in the Pittsburgh area, while RAND, BNY Mellon, Nova, FedEx, Bayer and NIOSH have regional bases that helped Pittsburgh become the sixth-best area for U.S. job growth.
In 2015, Pittsburgh was listed among the “eleven most livable cities in the world”; The Economist’s Global Liveability Ranking placed Pittsburgh as the first- or second-most livable city in the United States in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014. The region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction.
(The text of the last section was taken from a Wikipedia entry and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.)
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