Bill's Aviation Log

Up at the top looking down. The Steelers play at Heinz Field stadium on the left. Point State park is on the right.

When you see barges filled with black stuff, that is coal. When you see railroad cars filled with black stuff, that is coke. The coke is made by heating coal with greater than 600 degrees temperature and no air.

A better look at the junction of three rivers: the Allegheny River comes in from the top right (northeast), the Mononhegelia River comes in from the bottom right (southeast) and both rivers merge into the Ohio River at left (northwest). George made the interest case that the Ohio River should really be called the Allegheny River, and that the Mississippi River south of Cairo, Illinois should really also be called the Allegheny. Sort of how like the river south of the Green and Colorado River conjunction should be the Green River, not the Colorado.

George demonstrating how Franco Harris made the Immaculate Reception. This is the exact spot where the reception was made in the old Three Rivers Stadium.

George dropped us off in the Strip District for lunch and some souvenir shopping. We had a nice lunch at Roland's Seafood Grill, then I checked out Yinzers which sells all things Pittsburgh Steelers.

After lunch, we continued our guided tour with George. We would be taking the "Fire in the Valley" tour of Pittsburgh's Steel Valley along the Monongahela River.

Here are two giant 22 ton steel "billets", produced by Pittsburgh steel mills.

This is the site of the Battle of Homestead, July 9, 1892, the most consequential armed confrontation between workers and company-employed strikebreakers in American History.

The massive Homestead Works steel mill was here on the south side of a big bend in the Monongahela River. In 1965 it was booming with 450 buildings jamed onto 430 acres. In its lifetime, it produced more than 200 million tons of steel. It closed in 1986. Now it is the Waterfront shopping complex.

The Homestead Strike was a violent labor dispute in 1892 that ended in a battle between strikers and private security guards. The dispute took place at Carnegie's Homestead Steel Works between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for efforts to unionize steelworkers.

October 29, 2021 - Pittsburgh Tour
We drove from Meadville to Pittsburgh in the morning and met our tour guide for the day -- George -- at the Duquesne Incline Mountain Railway. It was a rainy day in Pittsburgh so the guided tour in Alan's car worked out great. Here we are about to go into the Incline car.

Up at the top looking down. The Steelers play at Heinz Field stadium on the left. Point State park is on the right. When you see barges filled with black stuff, that is coal. When you see railroad cars filled with black stuff, that is coke. The coke is made by heating coal with greater than 600 degrees temperature and no air.

The incline cars are pulled by cable. Yep, cable cars.

A better look at the junction of three rivers: the Allegheny River comes in from the top right (northeast), the Mononhegelia River comes in from the bottom right (southeast) and both rivers merge into the Ohio River at left (northwest). George made the interest case that the Ohio River should really be called the Allegheny River, and that the Mississippi River south of Cairo, Illinois should really also be called the Allegheny. Sort of how like the river south of the Green and Colorado River conjunction should be the Green River, not the Colorado.

A good shot of downtown Pittsburgh being rained on.

On the north side of the Allegheny River, sits the statue of Fred Rogers. You know, Mr. Rogers neighborhood.

Looking across the Allegheny River at downtown Pittsburgh. The tallest building is the PPG Headquarters Tower.

George demonstrating how Franco Harris made the Immaculate Reception. This is the exact spot where the reception was made in the old Three Rivers Stadium.





Checking out PPG Place, called the crown jewel of the Pittsburgh skyline. It consists of six buildings surrounding a plaza, which in wintertime has an ice skating rink.

The Tower -- headquarters of PPG Industries, Inc. -- is glazed with 19,750 pieces of glass. PPG stands for Pittsburgh Plate and Glass. The PPG Company was founded in 1883. PPG soon became the United States' first commercially successful producer of high-quality, thick flat glass using the plate process. PPG was also the world's first plate glass plant to power its furnaces with locally produced natural gas, an innovation which rapidly stimulated widespread industrial use of the cleaner-burning fuel. PPG expanded quickly. By 1900, known as the "Glass Trust", it included 10 plants, had a 65 percent share of the U.S. plate glass market, and had become the nation's second largest producer of paint. Today, known as PPG Industries, the company is a multibillion-dollar, Fortune 500 corporation with 150 manufacturing locations around the world. It now produces coatings, glass, fiberglass, and other chemicals.

The Rotunda of Union Station (also called Penn Station). The station building was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and built 1898–1904. The materials were a grayish-brown terra cotta that looked like brownstone, and brick. The most extraordinary feature of the monumental train station is the rotunda with corner pavilions. At street level the rotunda sheltered turning spaces for carriages beneath wide low vaulted spaces that owed little to any historicist style. Above, the rotunda sheltered passengers in a spectacular waiting room. Service began at the station on October 12, 1901. In the 1980s, the Burnham station building was converted to apartment use, while an annex was built to its east, serving as a more modern facility for Amtrak passengers.

George dropped us off in the Strip District for lunch and some souvenir shopping. We had a nice lunch at Roland's Seafood Grill, then I checked out Yinzers which sells all things Pittsburgh Steelers.

After lunch, we continued our guided tour with George. We would be taking the "Fire in the Valley" tour of Pittsburgh's Steel Valley along the Monongahela River. Here are two giant 22 ton steel "billets", produced by Pittsburgh steel mills.

Saint Joseph the Steel Worker. This statue used to be on top of a church but now sits in a back parking with hopes for the future.

A massive 12,000 ton press, used to make steel plate for battleships, among other things.

This is the site of the Battle of Homestead, July 9, 1892, the most consequential armed confrontation between workers and company-employed strikebreakers in American History. The massive Homestead Works steel mill was here on the south side of a big bend in the Monongahela River. In 1965 it was booming with 450 buildings jamed onto 430 acres. In its lifetime, it produced more than 200 million tons of steel. It closed in 1986. Now it is the Waterfront shopping complex. The Homestead Strike was a violent labor dispute in 1892 that ended in a battle between strikers and private security guards. The dispute took place at Carnegie's Homestead Steel Works between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The final result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for efforts to unionize steelworkers.

This Pump House dating back to 1892 when it was built by the Carnegie Steel Company is about all that is left of the Homestead Works.

Looking across the river at the Carrie Blast Furnaces. Carrie Furnace is a former blast furnace located along the Monongahela River. It formed part of the Homestead Steel Works. The Carrie Furnaces were built in 1884 and they operated until 1982. During its peak, the site produced 1,000 to 1,250 tons of iron per day. All that is left of the site are furnaces #6 and #7, which operated from 1907 to 1978, and its hot metal bridge (not to be confused with the Hot Metal Bridge farther downstream). The furnaces, designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, are among the only pre-World War II 20th century blast furnaces to survive.

Below, the US Steel Edgar Thomson Plant. Andrew Carnegie began steel production in 1875 at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in North Braddock, Pennsylvania, which evolved into the Carnegie Steel Company. He adopted the Bessemer process to increase production. The works is currently owned by U.S. Steel and is known the Mon Valley Works - Edgar Thomson Plant. In 1888, Carnegie bought the rival Homestead Steel Works, which included an extensive plant served by tributary coal and iron fields, a 425-mile long railway, and a line of lake steamships. He would also add the Duquesne Works to his empire. These three mills on the Monongahela River would make Pittsburgh the steel capital of the world. In the late 1880s, the Carnegie Steel Company was the largest manufacturer of pig iron, steel rails, and coke in the world, with a capacity to produce approximately 2,000 tons of pig iron per day. A consolidation of Carnegie's assets and those of his associates occurred in 1892 with the launching of the Carnegie Steel Company. Carnegie sold all his steel holdings in 1901 to JP Morgan; they were merged into U.S. Steel


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October 29, 2021 - Pittsburgh Tour