Making Industrial Pittsburgh Modern: Environment, Landscape, Transportation, and Planning

by Edward Muller, Joel Tarr

Overview

Pittsburgh’s explosive industrial and population growth between the mid-nineteenth century and the Great Depression required constant attention to city-building. Private, profit-oriented firms, often with government involvement, provided necessary transportation, energy resources, and suitable industrial and residential sites. Meeting these requirements in the region’s challenging hilly topographical and riverine environment resulted in the dramatic reshaping of the natural landscape. At the same time, the Pittsburgh region’s free market, private enterprise emphasis created socio-economic imbalances and badly polluted the air, water, and land. Industrial stagnation, temporarily interrupted by wars, and then followed deindustrialization inspired the formation of powerful public-private partnerships to address the region’s mounting infrastructural, economic, and social problems. The sixteen essays in Making Industrial Pittsburgh Modern examine important aspects of the modernizing efforts to make Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania a successful metropolitan region. The city-building experiences continue to influence the region’s economic transformation, spatial structure, and life experience.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822945697
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	12/03/2019
Edition description:	1
Pages:	504
Sales rank:	220,928
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Edward K. Muller is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a former chair of the Department of History, former director of the Urban Studies Program, and a Fulbright Research Scholar in New Zealand. He is founding member and former chair of the Board of Trustees of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.

Joel A. Tarr is the Caliguiri University Professor of History and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University where he has taught for over fifty years.  He is the recipient of CMU's Robert Doherty Prize for "substantial and sustained contributions to excellence in education” (1992), the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society of the History of Technology (2008), the American Environmental History Association Distinguished Service Award (2015), and the Founders Award, National Council on Public History (2018).

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I The Industrial Foundation

1 The Interaction of Natural and Built Environments in the Pittsburgh Landscape Edward K. Muller Joel A. Tarr 11

2 Pittsburgh's Industrial Corridors Edward K. Muller Joel A. Tarr 49

3 Industrial Suburbs and the Growth of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, 1870-1920 Edward K. Muller 65

4 Pittsburgh's Three Rivers: From Industrial Infrastructure to Environmental Assets Edward K. Muller Joel A. Tarr Timothy M. Collins 88

II Transportation and the Rise of the Modern City

5 The Omnibus, Commuter Railroad, and Horsecar Walking City to Networked City Joel A. Tarr 115

6 The Cable and Electric Streetcar Networks Joel A. Tarr 139

Appendix 6.1 Journey to Work 1860-1910, for Bank Presidents

Appendix 6.2 Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Outlying Town Growth

7 The Automobile Comes to Pittsburgh, 1910-1935 Joel A. Tarr 155

Appendix 7.1 Impact of the Automobile on the Pittsburgh Economy

8 Skybus: Pittsburgh's Failed Industrial Targeting Strategy of the 1960s Edward K. Muller Morton Coleman David Houston 176

III Energy, the Environment, and the Modern City

9 Pittsburgh as an Energy Capital: Perspectives on Coal and Natural Gas Transitions and the Environment Joel A. Tarr Karen Clay 213

10 Boom and Bust in Pittsburgh Natural Gas History: Development, Policy, and Environmental Effects, 1878-1920 Joel A. Tarr Karen Clay 250

Appendix 10.1 Aspects of Natural Gas Production, 1880-1920

11 Searching for a Sink for an Industrial Waste Iron-Making Fuels and the Environment Joel A. Tarr 269

12 The Metabolism of the Industrial City: The Case of Pittsburgh Joel A. Tarr 296

IV Planning the Modern City

13 The Olmsteds in Pittsburgh: Landscaping the Private City Edward K. Muller John F. Bauman 331

Appendix 13.1 Howard J. Heinz's "Greenlawn"

Appendix 13.2 W. L. Mellon's "Ben Elm"

Appendix 13.3 Elizabeth Thaw's "As You Like It"

14 "'In spite of the river' ought to be a Pittsburgh town-slogan" Riverfront Planning in Pittsburgh, 1900s-1970s Edward K. Muller 363

15 Downtown Pittsburgh: Relentless Change Edward K. Muller 392

16 Preserving Industrial Heritage Landscapes and Community Revitalization Edward K. Muller 444

List of Additional Works on Pittsburgh Edward K. Muller Joel A. Tarr 473

Index 479

Interviews

Urban and industrial history scholars, Pittsburgh and Southwestern PA regional interest. 

Editorial Reviews

Joel Tarr and Edward Muller are the two finest and most prolific living historians of the Pittsburgh region. Readers will find each essay in this volume useful, thorough, timely, and original.”  —John M. McCarthy, Robert Morris University
 

“This book is highly recommended. The case studies are rich and meaningful, demonstrating lessons to be learnt from past fallacies and how legacies of environmental neglect will impact future decision making.” —Technology and Culture
 

From the Publisher