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About Pittsburgh
The ten-block district known as the Golden Triangle, lies at the heart of downtown Pittsburgh at the confluence of the picturesque Monongahela, Allegheny and Ohio rivers. Once bitterly fought over as the gateway to the West, Pittsburgh today is one of America's most attractive and most livable cities.
Each of Pittsburgh's close-knit neighborhoods: the South Side and Mount Washington (across the Monongahela River from the Golden Triangle); the North Side, across the Allegheny River; and Oakland, the university area in the east, attests in its own way to the city's history and its resurgence. Easily accessible to each other, they retain individual identities, and each adds a unique element to the whole.
Industry in Pittsburgh began with the development of iron foundries in the early 1800s, and by the time of the Civil War, Pittsburgh was producing half of the iron and one third of the glass in the US. Soon after, the city became the world's leading producer of steel, thanks to the vigorous expansion programs of Andrew Carnegie, who, by 1870, was the richest man in the world. Present-day Pittsburgh is dotted with his cultural bequests, along with those of other wealthy benefactors who were Carnegie's contemporaries. These include the Mellon bankers, the Frick coal merchants, and the Heinz food producers.
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