Pittsburgh Travel Guide
For details of what to do and see in Pittsburgh check out our Pittsburgh guide to car hire in Pittsburgh.
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Although it was first settled by the French, modern Pittsburgh grew up around a British fort built at The Point, and named Fort Pitt after the prime minister William Pitt the Elder.
Following independence, the coal reserves around the city coupled with its position as a major trading centre saw Pittsburgh develop into a centre for the emerging steel industry, and its position as one of the most important cities in the USA's industrial belt continued right through until the 1970s, when through a combination of luck and judgement, Pittsburgh narrowly avoided following Detroit into urban Decay and crime fuelled chaos with the industrial collapse. Instead, of dying, Pittsburgh embraced the future, and became one of the more important high technology cities in the eastern USA, famous as the first nuclear powered city on the continent.
The city boasts a striking skyline of distinctive high-rise buildings whose individuality has seen Pittsburgh become the backdrop for a number of major films and television shows including Dogma, Flashdance, and Queer as Folk. Across Pittsburgh, the wealth of the past is clearly evident too, and philanthropists for Pittsburgh's industrial golden age have ensured their immortality by bequeathing many museums and concert halls to the people of the city, and consequently, with the excellent schools and universities there, the city has long been seen as a fairly liberal place to live, both politically, and for the arts. Amongst the luminaries of Pittsburgh, oddball artist Andy Warhol is perhaps the best known.
There are plenty of attractions in Pittsburgh to keep you occupied during your stay, and these include the National Aviary - home to over 600 species of bird; the Byham Theatre, one of the few surviving Vaudeville theatres in the USA, where performances still take place; and the National Flag Foundation, where you can ring a replica of the Liberty Bell, and see the Statue of Liberty and Freedom.
Pittsburgh is home to one of the largest zoos in the whole of the USA, Pittsburgh Zoo, and PPG Aquarium, where you can see literally thousands of animals in large enclosures, which have been designed and built to faithfully recreate the environment in which they would ordinarily live. Enclosures simulated in the zoo include the Arctic, the African Savannah and the Indian Rainforest, and the collection includes lions, tigers and many different elephants.
At night, Pittsburgh offers visitors the chance to "get down and boogie" in plenty of nightclubs, and attracts visitors from all over the area with its reputation for great nightlife.
