Our daughter Faith had a break in her busy schedule, so she and I decided to spend a long weekend in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I grew up in Pittsburgh, and Faith enjoys visiting the city. Usually, our visits are planned around a sporting event, but there were no opportunities to attend a game. The greater Pittsburgh area is large, and unique. Pittsburgh is built in the triangle defined by the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, where they join and form the Ohio River. Hills rise all around the rivers and the city, so the landscape includes bridges (over 450), tunnels for cars and mass transit, inclines (funicular) and steps.
Steps?
Yes, over 700 public staircases, owned and maintained by the city. As the city grew, workers in the booming mills needed two things—a place to live and a way to get to work. They built homes, apartments, churches and stores up on the hills. To get back and forth to the city and the rivers, they built steps.
For my one-liner today, I’m going to quote Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist and war correspondent, Ernie Pyle. This is from 1937.
“Pittsburgh looks like it was laid out by a mountain goat.“
Ernie Pyle
Faith wanted to walk up some of these staircases. We often visit Oakland, the area of Pittsburgh where The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), and Carnegie Mellon University – (CMU) are located, and one of the sets of steps highlighted by Pittsburgh Magazine are the Joncaire Street Steps. They connect the Pitt-side of the bridge that connects the two campuses to Panther Hollow (which separates them). With 137 steps, this was going to be our large set. I must say, finding a parking space in Panther Hollow was much easier than on the streets of Oakland. Climbing the staircase was daunting, but doable.
The next set of steps we wanted to see/climb was The Mosaic Steps. From the magazine’s website, the 77 steps are “embellished with a steel mill sprouting flowers out of its smokestacks, a girl with red boots, a church, a sun and an assortment of wildlife, including a fox, a deer and a butterfly.” The artwork was completed with 35,000 pieces of ceramic tile.
After climbing 137 steps, 77 sounded like a cakewalk…until we got to the top. Across the street? Another set of steps. At the top? Another set of steps. And at the top? You got it, another set of steps. We climbed them all. On the way back down, Faith counted 316 steps, give or take a landing or two. Apparently, the four sets are known as the Oakly street steps.
So, put on your virtual knee braces and enjoy the gallery. Some of the images are better viewed in a larger form. You can click on any picture to start a slide show.
This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun One-Liner Wednesday challenge.
All five of my current books are now available in audio book form thanks to Amazon KDP’s Virtual Voice process. The voice is AI generated, but I can honestly say, it’s pretty darn good. The audio books are reasonably priced (all below $7 US) and, if you already own the Kindle version and want to add an audio version, you can do that for $1.99. There is a five-minute sample on the book page for each book. If you’re interested, click on any of the Dreamer’s Alliance book links below the image or on the link below for my latest book.
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