Overview

Introduction

Looking around our neighborhoods and city, it is hard to imagine what the land looked like without all those houses and shopping malls, without the highways and side streets, without the bridges which cross the region's rivers and creeks.

We have become so accustomed to the way the city has shaped the landscape that one could easily forget, once upon a time, that it was the other way around: The landscape created the shape of the city.

In truth, the landscape still does. Although it may be less overt than in the days of pioneers, Western Pennsylvania's hills, valleys, and waterways determine where we live, how we travel, and the ways we work.

Pittsburgh is a city so defined by its natural features that many local businesses, charities, and professional organizations bear the name "Three Rivers." Think of Three Rivers Stadium, the Three Rivers Regatta, the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival, and companies such as Three Rivers Fencing. It is a fitting tribute to the dramatically beautiful geography of Western Pennsylvania, shaped by the forces of nature over hundreds of thousands of years.

Hopefully, our green hills and blue skies can also help remind us that one Pittsburgh tradition we can't afford to keep alive is the disregard of the health of our air, water, and land. Today's economic growth doesn't have to be at the expense of or environment.

• Making mountains: Geology of the mountains and rivers

• Rolling on the Rivers: Water transportion

• Moving Mountains: Land transport

  • Impediments: The Long Haul

  • Mining the land, molding the landscape

• The Burgh and the Burbs: Urban growth patterns

• Cleaning up after ourselves: Undoing enviromental damage