Historic image showing 1640 Smithfield Street at Fort Pitt Boulevard.

Fort Pitt Boulevard is a road in Pittsburgh on the southern area of Downtown, connecting Fort Pitt Bridge and Interstate 376. Fort Pitt poses a particular challenge to both mapmaker and navigator—along its entire half-mile length, up to six separate roadways making up the Boulevard, the Penn-Lincoln Parkway, and ramps between the latter and various Downtown streets are woven together in a space less than 300 feet wide.

Prior to 1940, the road was known as Water Street. In 1806, it was the home of industrialist James O'Hara;[1] from 1840 to 1935 it was the site of Monongahela House, a hotel which played host to visitors such as Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain.[2] Of all the businesses that were established along the road prior to the name change, the only ones still in business are Heyl & Patterson Inc., W.W. Patterson Manufacturing and Graybar Electric Company.

References

  1. ↑ "Pittsburgh in 1806" by Lois Mulkearn. Originally published in the Spring 1948 issue of Pitt: A Quarterly of Fact and Thought at the University of Pittsburgh. at http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/beck/
  2. ↑ Photograph at http://pgdigs.tumblr.com/post/29546894350/circa-1900-the-monongahela-house-was-in-its-day
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fort Pitt Boulevard.

Various maps and photographs, and a short history of the road, can be seen at Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

40°26′13″N 80°00′09″W / 40.43703°N 80.00238°W / 40.43703; -80.00238

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