Quezi

Pittsburgh evening - courtesy goose3five - CC-BY

Pittsburgh is the second largest city in the state of Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh was named in 1758 in honor of the British statesman, Sir William Pitt, incorporated as a borough in 1794 and chartered as a city in 1816.

There was a time when “Pittsburgh” and “beautiful” were never used in the same sentence.  But this city of 446 bridges has made great strides and in 2005 the Economist ranked Pittsburgh, along with Cleveland, the top most livable cities in the United States.

Why all the bridges? Pittsburgh straddles three great rivers, the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet at the tip of downtown to form the Ohio River.  Where the old steel mills stood on the Golden Triangle, it is now a place of parks, fountains and a yacht basin. Not only are there many bridges, the city has 712 sets of stairs, totaling 44,645 treads and 24,090 vertical feet for getting around its many hills. Much hillier than San Francisco.  Also, Pittsburgh will host a G-20 Summit meeting in September 2009.

Downtown is jammed with theaters, restaurants and art venues. There are great museums, such as The Carnegie Institute’s Museums of Art and Natural History and the Frick Museum. Pittsburgh is also a sports center and the only city where all major sports teams, the NFL Steelers, the NHL Penguins, and the Pirates of the MLB, all share the same team colors, black and gold.

Pittsburgh has some notable restaurants including many ‘ethnic’ restaurants as the city was settled by people from all over the world during its industrial peak. The shopping is just about what it would be in any large American city with a selection of large stores and malls.

Pittsburgh is not the safest of cities. In 2003, statistics indicated that Pittsburgh’s murder rate is 2.61 times the national average, “violent crime” about twice the national average,and “property” or non-violent crime is about 1.11 times the national average. Even the tourist areas become ‘iffy’ after dark.

The warmest month of the year in Pittsburgh is July. The average high temperature is 83 F (28 C), with overnight low temperatures averaging 62 F (17 C). The coldest month of the year is January, when the average high temperature is 35 F (2 C).

Pittsburgh population is 316,718 (2006).  The Metro area is 2,462,571.

Pittsburgh is served by Pittsburgh International airport. Public transportation is bus, light rail, funicular railway, and taxi.

1 is the international calling code for the United States
412, 724, 878 are the area codes for Pittsburgh.

For more information about Pittsburgh