West Side Belt, from Pittsburg to Clairton, 2I m.) railways, and by river boats on the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny. Picturesque rolling plateaus, the three rivers and narrow valleys, from which rise high hills or precipitous bluffs, are the principal natural features of the district over which the city extends Retail houses, wholesale houses, banks, tall office buildings, hotels, theatres and railway terminals are crowded into the angle, or “The Point, ” formed at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, with Fifth Avenue as the principal thoroughfare, especially for the retail houses, and Fourth Avenue as the great banking thoroughfare. Factories extend for miles along the banks of all three rivers into the tributary valleys, and are the cause of P1ttsburg's nickname, “ The Smoky City.” The more attractive residential districts are on the plateau in the eastern portion of the district between the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and on the hills overlooking the Allegheny river from the north. Overlooking the Monongahela river is Schenley Park (about 422 acres), the first city park, of which about 400 acres were given to the city in 1890 by Mrs. Mary E. Schenley About 2 m. to the north, overlooking the Allegheny river, is Highland Park (about 366 acres), which contains the city reservoirs and a picturesque lake. Adjacent to Schenley Park are Homewood and Calvary cemeteries, and adjacent to Highland Park is Allegheny cemetery. Across the Allegheny river, in the Allegheny district, are the beautiful Riverview Park (240 acres), in which is the Allegheny Observatory, and Vu est Park (about 100 acres). A number of bridges span the rivers.
The city has some fine public buildings, office buildings and churches. The Allegheny county court-house (1884-1888) is one of H. H. Richardson's masterpieces The Nixon theatre is also notable architecturally. The high Frick Office building has exterior walls of white granite, in its main hall is a stained glass window by John La Farge representing Fortune and her wheel A large government building of polished granite contains the post office and the customs offices. St Paul's Cathedral (Roman Catholic, 1903-1906) is largely of Indiana limestone. The city is the see of a Roman Catholic and a Protestant Episcopal bishop. In Schenley Park is the Carnegie Institute (established by a gift of $10,000,000 from Andrew Carnegie, who made further contributions of $9,000,000 for its maintenance), with a main building containing a library, a department of fine arts, a museum (see MUSEUMS or SCIENCE) and a music hall, and several separate buildings for the technical schools, which had 2102 students in 1909. The main building, dedicated in April 1907, is 660 ft long and 400 ft. wide; in its great entrance hall is a series of mural decorations by John White Alexander, a native of the city. The library, in which the institution had its beginning in 1895, contains about 306,000 volumes. The Phipps Conservatory was presented to the city in 1893 by Henry Phipps (b. 1839), a steel manufacturer associated with Andrew Carnegie. It is the largest in America, and, with its Hall of Botany, which is utilized in instructing school children in botany, is situated in Schenley Park The conservatory is maintained by municipal appropriations There is a zoological garden in Highland Park. In December 1907 it was decided that the several departments of the Western University of Pennsylvania, then in different parts of the city, should be brought together on a new campus of 43 acres near the Carnegie Institute. In July 1908 the name was changed to “ The University of Pittsburgh.” The university e nib races a college and engineering school, the Western Pennsylvania School of Mines and Mining Engineering, a graduate department, an evening school of economics, accounts and finances, a summer school, evening classes, Saturday clasess, and departments of astronomy (the Allegheny Observatory, in the Allegheny district), law (the Pittsburg Law School), medicine (the Western Pennsylvania Medical College), pharmacy (the Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy) and dentistry (the Pittsburgh Dental College). The institution had its beginning in the Pittsburgh Academy, which was opened about 1770 and was incorporated in 1787. It was incorporated as the Western University of Pennsylvania in 1819, but was only a. college from that date until 1892, when the Western Pennsylvania Medical College became its department of medicine. In 1895 the department of law was added, the Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy was united to the university, and women were for the first time admitted. In 1896 the department of dentistry was established. In 1909 the unix ersity had 151 instructors and 1243 students. In the east end is the Pennsylvania College for Women (Presbyterian; chartered in 1869), with preparatory, collegiate and musical departments. In the Allegheny district are the Allegheny Theological Seminary (United Presbyterian, 1825), the Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian, opened 1827), and the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1856). Although Allegheny is now a part of Pittsburg, the two public school systems remain independent. The Pittsburg High School (five buildings in 1910) has a normal course; and there are various private schools and academies.
The Pittsburg Gazette-Times is probably the oldest newspaper west of the Alleghany Mountains, the Gazette was founded in 1786 and in 19c6 was consolidated with the Tcmes (1879). Other prominent newspapers of the city are the Dispatch (1846), the Chronicle Telegraph (1841), the Post (1792, daily, 1842), which is one of the few influenti al Democratic newspapers in Pennsylvania, the Leader (Sunday, 1864; daily, 1870) and the Press (1883). Two German dailies, one Slavonic daily one Slavonic weekly, two Italian weeklies, and iron, building, coal and glass trade journals are published in the city. In Pittsburg is the publishing house of the United Presbyterian Church, and The Christian Advocate (weekly, Methodist Episcopal, 1834) is published here under the auspices of the general conference. The oldest hospital is the Reineman (private; 1803) for maternity cases; the municipal hospital (1878) is for contagious diseases; the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses, the Presbyterian Church and the United Presbyterian Woman's Association each have charge of a hospital; and there is also an eye, ear and throat hospital (1895). The Western Pennsylvania Institution for the instruction of the deaf and dumb (1876), in Edgewood Park, is in part maintained by the state. And the state assists the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Women (1882), and the Home for Colored Children (1881). Among other charitable institutions are the Curtis Home (1894) for destitute women and girls, the Bethesda Home (1890) for homeless girls and their children, the Florence Crittenton Home (1893) for homeless and unfortunate women, the Roselia Foundling Asylum and Maternity Hospital (1891), the Protestant Home for Incurables (1883), the Pittsburg Newsboys' Home (1894), the Children's Aid Society of Western Pennsylvania, the Pittsburg Association for the Improvement of the Poor and the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society.
Pittsburg is in the midst of the most productive coalfields in the country, the region is also rich in petrclevm and natural gas. The city is on one of the main lines cf communication between the east and the west, is the centre of a vast railway system, and has freight yards with a total capacity for more than 60,000 cars. Its harbour has a total length on the three rivers of 27-2 m, and an average width of about 1000 ft, and has been deepened by the construction (in 1877-1885) of the Davis Island dam, by dredging, under a federal project of 1899. Slack water navigation has been secured on the Allegheny by locks and dams (1890 and 1896 sqq) at an expense up to July IQOQ of $1,658,804; and up to that time $263,625 had been spent for open-channel work. The Monongahela from Pittsburg to the West Virginia state line (91-5 m.) was improved in 1836 sqq. by a private company which built seven locks and dams; this property was condemned and bought for $3,761,615 by the United States government in 1897, and, under the project of 1899 for rebuilding three of the locks and enlarging another, and that of 1907 for a new lock and dam and for other improvements, $2,675,692 was spent up to Tuly 1909 Coal is brought to the city from the coalfields by boats on the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers as well as by rail, and
