A brief history of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is located at the eastern edge of the Midwest, the western edge of the Northeast, and the northern edge of Appalachia. Downtown Pittsburgh is located at the junction where the Allegheny (north, left in the image above) and Monongahela (south/right) merge to form the Ohio river.
Its challenging geography has led to the many city stairs connecting neighborhoods and 446 bridges spanning the rivers and valleys of Pittsburgh, earning it the nickname 'city of bridges'. According to most definitions, this exceeds the number of bridges in any other city in the world (although some sources list Venice, Italy, at 472).
The confluence of rivers has been a cross-roads of commerce and cultural exchange since before European colonists settled here. After they had claimed the general area, the first permanent European outpost in the Pittsburgh location was established in 1755 as Fort Duquesne by the French. Two years prior, George Washington (then a major in the British Colonial Army), had let a British mission to request that the French abandon their claim (which they did not).
Fort Duquesne was taken by British forces during the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years War) under general John Forbes in 1758 after a distrous failed attempt under general Edward Braddock in 1755. The city was renamed Pittsburgh in honor of William Pitt the elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, the de facto leader of the British parliament at the time. Due to his support for American demands - such as no taxation without consent and an independent judiciary - Pitt was tremendously popular among the collonists. The spelling of Pittsburgh with 'gh' is presumably owed to general Forbes' Scottish roots. Known as 'Pittsburg' from 1891 to 1911 to the federal government after a standardization effort, the city successfully reclaimed its original spelling and is one of only a handful of cities in the US with a 'burgh' suffix.
The early history of Pittsburgh is reflected in many names around the city, such as Forbes Avenue (which bisects the campus of the University of Pittsburgh), Braddock Avenue, and Catham and Duquesne Universities. It is also reflected in the coat of arms of both the City of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh, which are derived from that of William Pitt, same as the colors of the Pittsburgh sports teams (black and gold).
In the second half of the 19th century, Pittsburgh became a center of industry and earned its nickname 'steel city'. 15% of artillery produced for the American Civil War came from Pittsburgh. Titans of industry such as Andrew Carnegie, Thomas and Andrew Mellon and Henry Clay Frick built their wealth here and they are remembered for the landmarks they gave the city, such as Frick Park and Carnegie Mellon University, maybe more so than for the devestation of the Homestead Strike or the Johnstown Flood.
Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest Americans of his time, passing John Rockefeller in 1901. He was also a strong believer in philanthropy and established several music halls and museums in and around the city of Pittsburgh, as well as in other cities throughout the country (perhaps most prominently, Carnegie Hall in New York City).
Pittsburgh remained a center of industry, hosting a third of the national steel production in the 1920es. During World War II, companies that had previously struggled to recover from the Great Depression sprung back into action and Pittsburgh increased its steel production by over 200%, becoming known as the "Arsenal of Democracy".
Industrial productivity came at a cost, and pollution was a major problem over decades. Among the steel mills, cars would keep their lights on even at noon when the weather didn't clear out the smoke and soot, and some business men would take two white shirts to the office each day since the first wouldn't stay white for the whole day.
In 1946, Pittsburgh mayor David Lawrence decided to prioritize clean air and modernize the city.
The shift of the American economy in the postwar period and cold war reverberated through Pittsburgh. The steel industry, once the driving economic force of the city, collapsed in the late 1970es and early 1980es, dropping from 90,000 steel workers in 1980 to less than half that number in the mid 1980es. Deindustrialization and suburbanization led to shifts in population and the decline of the population of the City of Pittsburgh from around 680,000 in 1950 to just over 300,000 in 2020. Notably, the Pittsburgh metropolitan area has a much larger population of about 2 million. While there are no longer any steel mills within city limits, the steel industry is present in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area to this day, albeit much reduced.
Following the decline of the steel industry and manufactoring, Pittsburgh pivoted to education, health care and technology in the 1990es. At 92,000 employees, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is the largest non-governmental employer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Going back at least to Andrew Mellon in the early 20th century, banking remains an important sector of the Pittsburgh economy.
The Freedom House Ambulance Service in Pittsburgh's Hill District was the first ambulance service in the United States with staff who had a medical education beyond basic first aid. This was an important innovation at a time where slow medical transportation had just led to the death of Pennsylvania Governor David Lawrence, the former Pittsburgh mayor who had invested himself in cleaner air. The all black ambulance service founded in 1967 became the blueprint for modern emergency medical transport.
The Pittsburgh agreement, written in 1918 by Tomáš G. Masaryk in Pittsburgh, led to the formation of an independent Czechoslovakia after the break-up of Austria-Hungary following World War I. Masaryk became the first president of Czechoslovakia.
Henry Heinz created the well-known ketchup company in Pittsburgh, and many Pittsburghers to this day refuse to purchase other brands. There is a museum down in the strip district.
According to the Global Livability Index released in 2018 by The Economist Intelligence Unit, Pittsburgh was the second most liveable city in the United States (following Honolulu, HI, and scoring 32nd worldwide).
Since 2018 (and as of 2025), the Pittsburgh Steelers (Pittsburgh's football team) are tied with the New England Patriots for most Super Bowl titles (both six).
The Pittsburgh Pirates (Pittsburgh's baseball team) were initially named the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. After the collapse of the Players' League (a competing baseball league), the team acquired players who had formerly played of Philadelphia through means which were dubbed 'piratical' by contemporary press. The nickname became popular in the city after 1891 and became official in 1912.
In the 17th century, the second person singular pronoun thou fell out of use in the English language in favor of ye and ultimately you, which had previously only been used as a plural pronoun or to address ones superiors in society. This in fact followed scholarly debates on rejecting the use of singular you, not unlike today's debates on the use of they as a singular pronoun.
When Irish speakers, who were used to distinct pronouns to address a single person or group of people, adopted English as their main language over a century later, they made natural adjustments and, taking you to be primarily singular, used you ones for larger groups. This gave rise to variations such as you'uns in the American Midwest and - Pittsburgh specific - yinz (use like y'all).
Another regional variation on standard is the answer to Hamlet's old question: It's not to be. Specifically, say this still needs proved instead of this still needs to be proved if you want to sound like a local.