Pittsburgh Audio Tour

Highlights

• Carnegie Mellon University

  Back in 1900 Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Technical Schools for the working-class children of Pittsburgh, and you are on the campus of what became Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie wanted to give the sons and daughters of steelworkers the practical technical education that would allow them to rise in the industrial economy.

• 
  Acrisure Stadium

  Ahead of you is the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the most successful franchises in National Football League history. The stadium opened in 2001 as Heinz Field, named for the H.J. Heinz Company, the Pittsburgh condiment empire founded by Henry John Heinz in 1869.

• University of Pittsburgh

  Two years ahead of George Washington's inauguration as the first president, in 1787, the Pittsburgh Academy was founded, and you are on the campus of the university it became, one of the oldest in the United States. The University of Pittsburgh grew from that frontier academy into a major research university with particular strength in medicine, pharmacy, and public health.

• 
  Cathedral of Learning

  Look up at one of the most extraordinary academic buildings in the world. The Cathedral of Learning rises 535 feet, 42 stories, in the Gothic Revival style in the middle of the University of Pittsburgh campus.

• 
  PNC Park

  PNC Park, in front of you, is one of the most beautiful ballparks in professional baseball. PNC Park opened in 2001, replacing Three Rivers Stadium, the multi-purpose concrete bowl that had served Pittsburgh since 1970.

All 40 stops

• Point State Park (The Point / Downtown)

  Picture the tip of the Golden Triangle, where the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River meet to form the Ohio.

• Gateway Center / Fort Pitt Site (Downtown / The Point)

  Picture the site of Fort Pitt, the mightiest British fort in North America.

• Market Square (Downtown)

  Picture the oldest public gathering space in Pittsburgh.

• Andy Warhol Museum (North Shore)

  Picture the most comprehensive single-artist museum in the world, dedicated to a man born Andrew Warhola in 1928 in a two-room apartment in Pittsburgh's Oakland…

• Mexican War Streets (North Side)

  Your walk takes you through one of Pittsburgh's most intact Victorian residential neighborhoods, a grid of streets whose names commemorate the United States' war with…

• North Shore (North Shore)

  Three decades ago this stretch of riverfront was post-industrial wasteland, and today you are on the North Shore, an entertainment and cultural district for an…

• PNC Park (North Shore)

  PNC Park, in front of you, is one of the most beautiful ballparks in professional baseball.

• Acrisure Stadium (North Shore)

  Ahead of you is the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the most successful franchises in National Football League history.

• Allegheny Commons Park (North Side)

  The Pennsylvania legislature established this park in 1867 on former Allegheny Arsenal grounds, making the ground under your feet one of Pittsburgh's oldest public parks.

• Stanton Heights / East Liberty (East End)

  Your walk enters the East End of Pittsburgh, the collection of neighborhoods stretching east from downtown that contains some of the city's most dramatic stories…

• Strip District (Strip District)

  Welcome to the Strip District, a narrow wedge of flat land along the Allegheny River that has been Pittsburgh's wholesale food and ethnic market district…

• St. Stanislaus Kostka / Polish Hill (Polish Hill)

  Polish Hill, where you are now, is one of the most intact ethnic immigrant neighborhoods surviving in Pittsburgh.

• Cultural District / Penn Avenue Arts Corridor (Downtown)

  Fourteen blocks of Penn Avenue make up the Cultural District you are entering, one of the most successful urban arts district developments in the United…

• PPG Place (Downtown)

  Glass spires rise in front of you at PPG Place, one of the most dramatic pieces of postmodern architecture in America.

• Senator John Heinz History Center (Strip District)

  A six-story ice storage warehouse built in 1898 now houses the largest history museum in Pennsylvania, and you are outside it.

• Fifth Avenue / Gilded Age Retail (Downtown)

  Your walk follows Fifth Avenue, the boulevard that was Pittsburgh's answer to Fifth Avenue in New York during the Gilded Age.

• Duquesne Incline (Mt. Washington)

  Step up to the lower station of the Duquesne Incline, one of the great engineering solutions to Pittsburgh's impossible topography.

• Mt. Washington Overlook (Mt. Washington)

  Notice the summit beneath your feet: Mount Washington, three hundred and sixty-seven feet above the rivers, looking at one of the most famous city views…

• Monongahela Incline (Mt. Washington)

  Since May 28, 1870, the Monongahela Incline in front of you has run continuously, the oldest operating funicular railway in the United States.

• Grandview Avenue Overlook (Mt. Washington)

  Your walk follows Grandview Avenue, the ridge road on top of Mount Washington, and you understand immediately why it was named so.

• Station Square (South Shore)

  Trains once pulled in where you are now, inside the former Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad passenger terminal, built in 1901 and now converted into…

• South Side Flats (South Side)

  Row houses along the south bank of the Monongahela River tell you where you are, the South Side Flats, a neighborhood built on the flat…

• Hot Metal Bridge / Steel Heritage (South Side / Hazelwood)

  Molten steel once crossed the Monongahela River on the Hot Metal Bridge in front of you, a railway bridge built in 1900 that carried ladles…

• Lawrenceville / Arsenal Complex (Lawrenceville)

  Lawrenceville, the neighborhood you have reached on the north bank of the Allegheny River, began as a federal arsenal town.

• Allegheny Cemetery (Lawrenceville)

  Beyond the gates in front of you lies Allegheny Cemetery, one of the finest examples of the rural cemetery movement in America.

• Bloomfield — Pittsburgh's Little Italy (Bloomfield)

  Bloomfield, known as Pittsburgh's Little Italy, has kept its Italian-American character through a century of urban change, and you are walking through it now.

• Squirrel Hill (Squirrel Hill)

  For over a century Squirrel Hill, where you are now, has been the center of Jewish life in Pittsburgh and one of the most cohesive…

• Tree of Life Synagogue (Squirrel Hill)

  This building in front of you is the Tree of Life Synagogue, the site of the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history.

• Hazelwood / Mill Row (Hazelwood)

  Steel shaped Hazelwood almost entirely, and the neighborhood you have entered on the south bank of the Monongahela River has been rebuilding its identity since…

• Oakland / Cultural Hub (Oakland)

  Universities and hospitals crowd Oakland, where you are now, one of the most dense concentrations of educational and medical institutions in the United States.

• Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History (Oakland)

  Andrew Carnegie, the man who more than anyone else made Pittsburgh what it is, gave the city the museum complex in front of you, one…

• Carnegie Mellon University (Oakland)

  Back in 1900 Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Technical Schools for the working-class children of Pittsburgh, and you are on the campus of what became…

• Cathedral of Learning (Oakland)

  Look up at one of the most extraordinary academic buildings in the world.

• University of Pittsburgh (Oakland)

  Two years ahead of George Washington's inauguration as the first president, in 1787, the Pittsburgh Academy was founded, and you are on the campus of…

• Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens (Oakland)

  Acres of glass rise at the entrance in front of you, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, one of the finest Victorian glass conservatories surviving in…

• Schenley Park (Oakland / Squirrel Hill)

  Mary Schenley, an eccentric Pittsburgh heiress who had eloped at age fifteen with a British Army officer thirty years her senior, gave the city these…

• Chatham Village (Mt. Washington / Beechview)

  Between 1932 and 1936 a planned residential community rose on this hillside south of the Monongahela River, and you are in it now, Chatham Village…

• Edgewood / Swissvale — Steel Mill Suburb (East End / Edgewood)

  Railroad suburbs like Edgewood, where you are, grew up east of Pittsburgh along the Pennsylvania Railroad main line in the late nineteenth century.

• Carnegie Library of Homestead / Homestead Strike (Homestead)

  Homestead, where you are now, was the site of the most violent and consequential labor battle in American history.

• Braddock / Edgar Thomson Works (Braddock)

  Here in Braddock, where you are, Andrew Carnegie's steel empire began.

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