A piece of “industrial wasteland”. This is how the Pittsburgh Riverfront was once described. More than 30 years ago, city officials and developers tried to envision a greener and healthier future for the land along the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers.
In many ways, they have succeeded-now, the Three Rivers Heritage Trail is 33 miles long and there are plans for multiple expansions. These trails attract cyclists, runners and families, and are home to thousands of native plants and animals.
However, to create a clean, natural resort from the bustling urban community of the city, the road is difficult.
good question! The questioner Meghan McNabe is a student at Ellis School and often runs on trails. He wants to know how to achieve this development.
“I have always wanted to know the history of my favorite trail, which is the riverside trail along the North Shore and the Carnegie Science Center,” McNab asked.
The former mayor of Pittsburgh, Tom Murphy, was the first person in his family who did not end his career as a steel worker. He sometimes works in a factory in the summer, but unlike his father, uncle, and grandfather, he has no future in industry.
Starting in the 1970s, steel left, threatening Pittsburgh’s economy. The factory was demolished, leaving behind empty, contaminated land known as brownfields.
“It’s painful,” Murphy said. “We lost half of the population, and the people who left were mainly young people.”
The area is being hurt, and community leaders need to find a way to save Pittsburgh’s economy. Murphy said that part of this means reimagining the remnants of the steel industry. In the 1980s, Murphy, the then state representative, began discussions with city officials to establish a trail system.
As an avid cyclist, Murphy persuaded members of the former mayor Sophie Maslov’s government to ride along the current Eliza Melting Trail. At that time it was a vacant railway right of way. He told them about the potential of railways to trails, a green space renewal movement that began in the 1960s. But this is a tough sale.
“Sophie is worried that the budget is correct and doesn’t want to spend extra money,” Murphy said.
Murphy said: “We are not close to the beach, nor to the ocean. We are not always warm.” “[The river] may be the best asset we have. We did not use them.”
In 1990, an organization called the Riverfront Planning Commission—later to become Friends of the Riverfront and current trail administrator—received tens of thousands of dollars in state and federal funding for trail development. They used the money to buy all available riverside properties and drew up blueprints for trails that can be cycled and jogged.
By the 1990s, the station square on the south side had become a tourist attraction, combining its celebration of steel history with colorful fountains and new restaurants. It benefits from being close to the new riverside trail, and other companies are beginning to take notice.
“We are starting to see a lot of people now want to invest by the river,” Murphy said. “They see this trail as an asset, not a liability.”
However, sometimes new buildings along the banks of the river are hindered by the industrial history of the area. Murphy said that when UPMC was building a warehouse near Carson Street in the Southern District, an accident occurred.
“Suddenly, the floor started to rise in about six places like a volcano,” Murphy said. “The concrete is being lifted.”
The culprit? Popcorn residue, an industrial by-product of steel. Murphy said that this particular type swells when wet. Developers learned their lesson when they built new structures and encountered pollution or other waste.
Trail builders and developers also chose to pay tribute to the industrial history of the area: educational signs on all three rivers marked information about the former factory; old slag tanks sitting in a small park; steel ingots paid tribute to steel workers.
Allen Dietrich-Ward, a professor of history at Shippensburg University, said that steel public art structures help connect new people in Pittsburgh with people connected to the past.
“It provides a way for people of different backgrounds and experiences to communicate with each other,” Ward said. “The rail-to-path vision we saw on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in Pittsburgh provides a community-based development model. I think it can and should be replicated in communities of various sizes throughout Pennsylvania.”
Friends of the Riverside worked with organizations to maintain the trail system to ensure clean paths, remove invasive plants, and design new extensions. Executive director Kelsey Ripper said they are currently working to connect trails in Freeport, Pennsylvania with other places.
“Seventeen municipalities have signed agreements to add trail extensions to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail in their communities,” Ripper said. “This will also be part of Erie’s road to Pittsburgh.”
The Riverwalk has been connected to the Great Allegheny Passage or GAP Trail from Maryland to Pittsburgh. Ripper said they are still studying the trails to Cleveland, Ohio, West Virginia and Harrisburg. In addition, she said, they have become a catalyst for more commuters on bicycles in the city.
“These trails are definitely used for transportation. When we consider the appearance and future of the city and how people travel, trails will become an important part of it. They already are.”
In recent years, the protection of local plants and the removal of harmful species have helped bring back the animals that were abandoned in the area due to pollution of the river.
“You will see the story of the eagle returning to Pittsburgh, the otter in the river, and the beaver in the river,” Lipper said. “This is because Friends of Riverfront and many other organizations in the area have completed these types of restoration projects.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced many Pittsburgh residents to return home, the trail became a respite. Now that more and more people are vaccinated, coupled with the warm summer weather, trails will continue to be the most popular destination.