Spuds, Tonight you are playing at the Thrival Festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is known as the “Steel City” and is sometimes referred to as the “City of Bridges” … it has 446 of them! Pittsburgh was settled at the confluence of three major rivers … the Monongahela, Ohio and Allegheny. Actually, the source of the Ohio River is the confluence of the Monongahela and the Allegheny. Pittsburgh was named in honor of William Pitt … a British statesman. Pennsylvania was named after William Penn. KING CHARLES II of Scotland, England and Ireland owed William’s father 16,000 pounds. He was paid off in a huge land script … hence, Pennsylvania. You actually are related to William Penn on Grampa Russ’ side of the family. And one more thing about the name Pittsburgh … from 1890-1911, the “h” was dropped so the city was called Pittsburg. However, public persuasion won out and the name was restored to Pittsburgh. This certainly was better than the original name, Pittsborough! The area has been under both French and British governments. In fact, it is said that the French and Indian War began in what is now Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has been a major industrial and finance center throughout its history. Currently, it is a leader in environmental building design. Some of the first “green” buildings were constructed in Pittsburgh. It has also been active in the movie industry. In 1905, John Harris opened a theatre on Smithfield Street in downtown Pittsburgh. Though it wasn’t the first theatre to show a “motion picture”, it may have been the first to be devoted to the new genre. The city is loaded with museums, so be sure to visit one or two. The Carnegie Museum of Art and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History come to mind. You may be interested to know that Andy Warhol is from Pittsburgh so I suggest you visit the Andy Warhol Museum as well. The Pittsburgh Pirates are having a great season, so you may want to stop by PNC Park and watch last year’s NL MVP, Andrew Mccutchen roam center field! I am pulling for the Buccos to meet the Seattle Mariners in this year’s World Series. One more thing … Pittsburgh has more bars per capita than any major US city… 11.8 bars for every 10,000 people!!!!!!!!!! Who knew??????????? -Dad
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 19:48:34 +0000
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