Overview: Pittsburgh a City that Rolls with the Punches and Prospers
Life has not been easy for Pittsburgh, the largest city in western Pennsylvania, and 54th largest in the country. The steel industry that once made Pittsburgh a major international industrial hub has declined and so has the city’s population. But, not its spirit.
Pittsburgh is in the process of reinventing itself and thriving as a result. The Steel City has shed its blue collar for a white one; swapped its coke ovens for laboratories, and looks to technology instead of primary metals for its future.
The vestiges of the past remain. Many of the industrialists of the past left their legacies, endowing the city’s exceptional arts community and donating heavily to the numerous colleges and universities in the city. With a network of parks, the rolling hills carved out by the rivers that help define the city and one of the lowest crime rates of any major U.S. city, Pittsburgh boasts about its quality of life.
But, Pittsburgh is not necessarily for those with bad knees. The city is home to 712 public staircases – many of which are named just as streets are – in order to get around its hilly terrain. A new book on the topic of these stairways even claims Pittsburgh to be “the king of the steps”, beating out San Francisco that has about half as many.
Fast Facts
- Location: western Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers that form the Ohio River.
- Area: 58.3 square miles
- Population: 325,337
- Housing Units: 163,366
- Average Annual Rainfall: 40 inches per year (including snow)
- Average Annual Temperature: 50.3 degrees F