From Steel City to natural wonder... Exploring Pittsburgh and Niagara Falls

By Kris Grant

Pittsburgh has made a remarkable transformation in recent years. At the turn of the 20th century, the city’s unofficial moniker was “The Smoky City.” Later, as the producer of half the steel in America, it was known as “Steel City.” And while the Steel City moniker lives on (despite the closing of nearly all steel mills by the mid-1980s), it’s easy to see why Pittsburgh is known of late as “the City of Bridges.”

The Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers meet in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. Decades ago the rivers were so polluted that they were considered “dead.” But over the last four decades, governmental agencies brought about new treatment facilities and citizens’ activism coalesced to clean up the waterways. Today, the rivers are filled with tour and fishing boats and their banks invite biking and hiking.

In this article, I’ll share some Pittsburgh impressions, then head north to Niagara Falls. Always heard those falls were grand, but seeing is believing!

Pittsburgh is an amalgamation of 90 – yes 90! –distinct and charming neighborhoods. They came about largely as a result of the city’s hilly topography and three rivers. Later they came to be divided by railroad tracks and ethnic groups. People tended to live, work, play and worship within their own communities, most of them with their own main streets.

In addition to Downtown, where I stayed, here are a few popular neighborhoods you might wish to explore!

Oakland The vibe here is intellectual, international and cultural. That’s to be expected when you realize that the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History, the University of Pittsburgh and the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens are all located here, along with world-class hospitals and medical centers.

The Strip District “The Strip,” as locals call it, is just that – a narrow strip (one-half mile) of land between the Allegheny River and a mountain of a hill, chock full of ethnic grocers, produce stands, meat and fish markets and sidewalk vendors. The District dates as its emergence as a wholesale produce district to the early 1900s, when the Pennsylvania Railroad relocated its warehouses a dozen blocks to the east of Downtown. Here you’ll find the Senator John Heinz History Center

Squirrel Hill This family-oriented community boasts over 1,000 acres of parkland and is home to some of the most delicious ethnic restaurants in the city. Try Aladdin’s Eatery, Bangkok Balcony, Gaby Et Jules, Silk Elephant or Bull River Taco. For more traditional American fare, head to Squirrel Hill Café. Pizza by the slice is offered everywhere here, and an age-old rivalry exists between Aiello’s and Mineo’s Pizza.

Lawrenceville This is Pittsburgh’s largest and hippest neighborhood, home to many artists and designers and host of some of the city’s biggest annual arts events. Located less than three miles from Downtown, it’s filled with one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants along its main drag, Butler Street. In 2019, the Lawrenceville Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Composer Stephen Foster (“Oh, Susanna,” “Camptown Races”) was born here and each July a “Doo Dah Day” music festival is held at the historic Allegheny Cemetery where Foster is buried alongside other Pittsburgh celebrities. You can also go on Cemetery tours.

Bloomfield is Pittsburgh’s “Little Italy.” Its Italian roots reaching back more than five generations. The Bloomfield Bridge connects the neighborhood to the universities and cultural attractions in Oakland. Its colorful mix of shops and restaurants are renowned.

I approached Pittsburgh from the West, plowing through Mt. Washington via the Fort Pitt tunnel. I emerged on the Fort Pitt Bridge with the downtown cityscape laid out before me.

Two years ago I visited Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home for the Edgar Kaufmann family, which owned Kaufmann’s department store in downtown Pittsburgh. The former department store traces its founding to 1871 as a men’s store in Pittsburgh’s South Side founded by Morris, Jacob and Isaac Kaufman. Six years later they moved to a downtown location that came to be known as “The Big Store.” Edgar Kaufmann was Morris’s son, and eventually bought out the other family members and enlarged the store. The thirteen-story structure featured twelve floors of retail and Kaufmann’s private office, also designed by Wright, on the top floor.

It was the flagship of the Kaufmann’s department store empire that stretched across several states. By the 1910s, Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann were trendsetters of the city, and in the 1920s were listed in Pittsburgh’s Blue Book, the social registry of the time. The public clock was added in 1913. “Meet me under the Kaufmann’s clock” was the theme of the clock’s 100th anniversary celebration in 2013 when the store’s last owner, Macy’s, held a contest, asking for stories about meetings that took place under its hour hands. Alas, the ground floor is a now a neighborhood Target and the upper floors have been redeveloped into 311 apartments.

I love riding funiculars! They take you up steep grades and give you a glimpse back in time while you take in today’s city views. My first ride as a youngster was on Angels Flight in Los Angeles. A couple of years ago, I rode the Fenelon Place Elevator in Dubuque, Iowa and now I was about to ascend Mt. Washington on the Duquesne Incline (pronounced “doo-KANE”).

My first glimpse of Pittsburgh was emerging from the Fort Pitt tunnel through Mt. Washington. That mountain today is covered with homes on steep hillsides. In the 1800s, Pittsburghers were forced to move up to what was then called “Coal Hill” by industrial development below. To get to work, they could either climb long stairways or ride one of four inclines. Today, only two survive: the Duquesne Incline with its red cars and the Monongahela Incline with yellow cars. In fact, the Duquesne Incline almost succumbed, after its former owner closed it in 1962 due to low ridership as residents increasingly turned to the automobile. But citizens created a nonprofit and a hugely successful fundraising campaign to restore the Incline, and it reopened in 1963. Today, some commuters still use the Incline, but ridership is mostly by visitors who love to take in the city skyline.

You might want to include lunch or dinner at a local restaurant within walking distance of the Upper Station. If so, some popular choices include:

Steel Mill Saloon (directly across the street), Le Mont restaurant (five-diamonds, dress up!), The Grandview Saloon & Coal Hill Steak House, Monterey Bay Fish Grotto (stunning views of Pittsburgh) or Vue.421.

Or, you might want to head over to Station Square before or after an Incline excursion. It’s less than a mile east and here

you’ll find Buca di Bepa (the popular Italian eatery chain) a Hard Rock Café and Grand Concourse restaurant. Here you can also access the Gateway Clipper Fleet dining and sightseeing tours of the three rivers.

Cautionary notes:

• There are no restrooms available at or near either station.

• You’ll need to provide exact fare ($5, round trip or $2.50, one way), no credit or debit cards accepted.

• The Upper Station and Observation Deck are handicapped accessible. Incline cars can accommodate wheelchairs of up to 25 inches in width.

• The Lower Station has a free parking lot but is not handicapped accessible. Indeed, you’ll need to climb about three flights of stairs to reach the station.

Oh, if only every city had its own Andrew Carnegie! This titan of industry left a legacy for Pittsburgh, our country and his homeland of Dunfermline, Scotland.

Carnegie was born Nov. 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, and immigrated with his parents to Pittsburgh at age 12. His first job was as a “bobbin boy,” charged with changing bobbins and running a boiler at Pittsburgh’s Anchor Cotton mill. By age 14, he was a messenger boy for the Ohio Telegraph Company and within a year promoted to operator. His passion for reading was given a boost and, unbeknownst to him at the time, planted the seed for funding libraries when Col. James Anderson opened his personal library of 400 volumes to working boys. At age 18, Carnegie went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a secretary/telegraph operator, where he keenly anticipated greater prospects for career growth. By his late 20s, Carnegie ran the entire Western division of the railroad company. He also invested in Pullman sleeping cars for first-class travel.

During the Civil War, while still in charge of the railroad division, Carnegie made investments into iron works; the Pennsylvania Railroad, which needed steel for tracks, was his best customer. After the war, he supplied steel and owned shares in the landmark Eads Bridge project across the Mississippi River.

From 1875 through the end of the century, Carnegie’s steel empire flourished, surpassing production of steel in the U.K. In 1901 he sold U.S. Steel for $225 million (about $8 billion today)

Carnegie devoted the rest of his life to providing capital for purposes of public interest and social and educational causes.

He donated to the founding of the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D. C. and continued funding to these schools and others.

He established public libraries throughout the United States, Britain, Canada and other English-speaking countries, asking only that local governments provide land and an operating fund.

A major patron of music, in 1891 he

built Carnegie Hall in New York City. He funded the construction of 7,000 pipe organs in churches and temples, with no apparent preference for any religious denomination or sect.

He was published widely in magazines on the subjects of industrialism and philanthropy.

His “Andrew Carnegie Dictum” advocated spending the first third of one’s life getting all the education one can; to spend the next third making all the money one can, and to spend the last third giving it all away for worthwhile causes.

In one of his many memos to himself, he wrote:

Today there are four Carnegie Museums in Pittsburgh, two of which I visited, The Andy Warhol Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Art. I saved the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Carnegie Science Center for my next visit to Pittsburgh!

Carnegie Museum of Art is arguably the first museum of contemporary art in the United States, collecting the “Old Masters of tomorrow” in keeping with Andrew Carnegie’s stated vision for the museum, which opened Nov. 5, 1895. Since then, there have been major expansions of the museum, tripling it in size. Its collection of more than 34,000 objects features a broad spectrum of visual arts. Through its programming, exhibitions, and publications, the museum frequently explores the role of art and artists in confronting key social issues of our time, providing local and global perspectives.

The Andy Warhol Museum is the largest museum in North America dedicated to the work of a single artist – Andy Warhol. The seven-story structure illuminates the art, life, and times of one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century. Combining artworks, images, and objects from Warhol’s colorful life, the museum takes visitors on a tour of Andy Warhol’s personal and professional life—from Andy Warhol the Pittsburgh art student to Andy Warhol the Pop icon. The tour starts on the top floor, where you learn about his early years, then winds its way down as his life and times heat up.

With some 500,000 artworks and objects, the museum is the global keeper of Warhol’s legacy. Works include 900 paintings; approximately 100 sculptures; nearly 2,000 works on paper; more than 1,000 published and unique prints; 4,000 photographs; 60 feature films, 200 screen tests and more than 4,000 videos, and more. The works rotate, so a visit one year to the museum may show a notably different collection than the next.

Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928, in a two-room apartment in a working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh. His parents Andrej and Julia Warhola (also an artist) were immigrants from what is today Eastern Slovakia. They had three sons, Paul, John, and, their youngest, Andy.

Although Andy’s parents, like many Americans, were financially strapped during the Depression, they managed to buy him a camera at age 8. He enrolled in free art classes at the Carnegie Institute (today, the Carnegie Museum of Art). Recognizing his son’s talent, Andy’s father paid for him to attend Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University).

As a child, Andy was occasionally bedridden with a rare disease, Sydenham chorea, and he had pigment issues that caused skin discoloration, and his boyhood friends teased him with nicknames like “Spot” and “Andy the Red-nosed Warhola.” In defense, Andy cultivated different looks through his clothing, wigs, cosmetics and plastic surgery to reshape his nose.

After graduation, Andy moved to New York and began working as a commercial artist, with his first assignment being the illustration of a story entitled “What is Success?” that appeared in a 1949 edition of Glamour magazine. At this time, he dropped the final “a” in Warhola.

Throughout the 1950s, he created awardwinning illustrations for clients that included Tiffany & Co., Columbia Records, Bonwit-Teller and Vogue magazine.

He became known for his blotted image drawings using a technique that he developed in college that combined drawing and basic printmaking that allowed him to create multiple illustrations along a similar theme.

Some of the most notable artworks include 1960s pop art paintings of consumer products, including Campbell’s Soup Cans and Coke, and celebrity portraits of stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley.

His Manhattan studio, The Factory, became a well-known gathering place that brought together playwrights, Hollywood celebrities, famous musicians, drag queens, Bohemian street people and wealthy patrons. Warhol once said they didn’t come to see him but to see who else was there.

Warhol loved to shop and once referred to stores as the museums of our time. Following his untimely death at the age of 58 after gallbladder surgery, his collection of furniture, accessories, oddities and curiosities was sold in a Sotheby’s ten-day public auction that netted more than $25 million for the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

As I left Pittsburgh on a rainy, overcast morning, I was gradually making my way up to Vermont, but I didn’t need to be there for a few days. I noticed that Niagara Falls was just 239 miles, or four hours, away. I had always wanted to see the falls and even though it was a rainy day, I decided to head north to where New York meets the Canadian border.

I arrived in the early afternoon. The storm had passed, the sun had broken through and it had turned into a beautiful day. About five miles away from the falls, I saw an odd phenomenon on the horizon ahead. What the heck is that? I wondered. And then I realized it was a huge cloud of mist rising from the falls. As I approached the entrance to the Niagara Falls State Park and lowered my car window to pay the parking attendant, I heard a roar, like continuous thunder. Thus, I sensed the awesome power of the falls before I actually saw them.

I was so fortunate! The morning rain and cold had obviously dissuaded tourists from venturing out. I was able to walk right up to the Maid of the Mist ticket booth. Such a great deal for just $28.25! Before I boarded, I walked out on the observation deck to photograph the three falls and the Canadian skyline. Then I descended 200 feet

by elevator to the boats below. The boats can hold up to 600 passengers on their two decks, quite an improvement over the first steam-engine boats that plied the waters back in 1846. We were all provided blue rain ponchos with orders to don the flattering garb before boarding. From a distance I think we passengers looked like either blue mummies or the Blue Man group.

As we cruised past the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, my poncho rippled softly

in the breeze. But then we moved closer to Horseshoe Falls, and the fall’s waters grew thunderous. In the turbulent waters, the “mist” turned into a driving rain that almost obliterated the view. It was exhilarating and hilarious at the same time! I was laughing while I gripped my cell phone, wanting to capture the excitement but not drop my precious phone in the swirling wet wind. I tell you with all sincerity that you must visit Niagara Falls!

I learned that the waters that flow over the falls comes from four of the five Great Lakes – Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior. Each second, 600,000 gallons spill over the falls and 90 percent of the fish who take the plunge over the falls survive (who measures this stuff?)

With the development of train travel in the 1800s, throngs of tourists made their way to the falls. In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte’s younger brother, Jerome, and his bride honeymooned at the falls. According to Niagara lore, that’s what kicked off Niagara Fall’s honeymoon tradition. In fact, my own parents visited the falls on their cross-country honeymoon trip in 1947.

Frederick Law Olmsted, perhaps best known for designing New York City’s Central Park, believed that parks should be places of natural beauty, where “the masses could be renewed.”

Olmstead first visited the falls in August 1869, taking a walk with friends on Goat Island, the last unspoiled area near the falls. He was appalled by what he saw –encroaching development had obscured much of the view of this natural wonder. He and his business partner Calvert Vaux began a long campaign to “Free Niagara.” They were joined by intellectuals of the era including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsforth Longfellow, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin and Charles Darwin, William Morris (founder of the arts and crafts movement), the Governor General of Canada, Lord Dufferin; and renowned landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church. Church’s 1857 panoramic painting captured the majesty of the falls and enticed visitors when it went on tour throughout the nation. Olmsted’s campaign was ultimately successful when Grover Cleveland was elected governor of New York and signed a bill calling for the establishment of a state park at Niagara and Olmsted was commissioned as its landscape architect.

In 1885 Niagara Falls State Park was dedicated. It is the oldest of America’s state parks. In addition to the falls and river, Olmsted’s design features a network of footpaths through wooded areas, preserving native vegetation and providing vistas and viewpoints of the falls and the Niagara River to be enjoyed by the masses for all time.

After the Maid of the Mist tour, I left Niagara, heading to New York’s state capital in Albany. I suppose most people spend the night in the little town of Niagara, but it seemed kind of Coney Island-like to me. I heard that they light up the falls at night and on the Canadian side of the border you can go on a Journey Behind the Falls walk. But the Maid of the Mist was all the thrill I needed! And, oh, I just remembered – I still have my blue poncho. I should have pulled it out with all the rain we had this past season!

I stayed at Joinery Pittsburgh Hotel, a boutique hotel concept that is part of the Curio Collection of Hilton Hotels, so I knew before I arrived that it would offer a special character. The 185-room property is located in Downtown Pittsburgh’s “Golden Triangle” area near the convergence of the three rivers.

The Gothic Revival-style structure was built in 1924 as the Salvation Army of Western Pennsylvania. Re-christened The Evangeline Residence in 1951 (honoring the first woman to serve as the Army’s General, Evangeline Booth), the property served the city as a charitable institution for many years before becoming a hotel.

The Joinery’s warm and welcoming twolevel lobby is detailed with the original molding from the building that dates back to the 1920s. A staircase leads up to the mezzanine where you’ll find some of the Joinery’s event space.

On the lobby’s main level, the registration desk is integrated with a barista-style coffee bar, called “The Offering Table” where you can purchase coffee drinks and pastries pretty much like you would at your neighborhood go-to coffee bar. In fact, the hotel’s lobby is “stay like you own the place” and the lobby features a cozy family room vibe. Just beyond the bar stool seating, I found a comfortable sofa seating area with record players (with headphones) and a great choice selection of albums, plus a well curated library of more than 600 volumes; I grabbed a couple to take up to my room to read later.

Another favorite spot in the hotel was its 10th-floor rooftop terrace where I took in panoramic views of Mount Washington and the Downtown Pittsburgh cityscape.

The hotel had not yet opened its restaurant, The Christian James, so I wasn’t able to sample its cuisine. But you can – it’s open seven days a week now for breakfast, lunch and dinner and is just off the hotel’s lobby.

I walked over to nearby Market Square, an area of the city that in 1764 housed the city’s first courthouse, jail and newspaper. Today, it’s home to several restaurants and shops surrounding a central square that offers concerts and year-round events. On the square, I made a beeline for Primanti Bros. that has been serving the ultimate Pittsburgh sandwich stacked with French fries and coleslaw since 1933.

On a second night, I went to City Works Eatery & Pour House, also on the Square, where I tasted brews from a few of the 90 on-tap offerings.

A Pittsburgh dessert I urge you to sample is the Burnt Almond Torte at Prantl’s Bakery. A friend who hailed from Pittsburgh once brought one of these tortes back to a Coronado dinner, and I think it may have been what led me to Pittsburgh! There are five Prantl’s locations throughout the city – I visited the one in Squirrel Hill.

And finally, you must sample some pierogies! These are crescent-shaped, tender dumplings filled with a variety of ingredients. I recommend Pierogi’s Plus (open only Monday – Friday!), founded by Helen Mannarino, who grew up in Poland and immigrated to the United States in 1974.

Helen settled in McKees Rock, a Pittsburgh suburb about five miles from Downtown, and opened her pierogi business there in 1991 – in a renovated gas station! Locals have been beating their way to her door ever since, and the original 350 square foot production and retail space is now ten times bigger. But be warned: it’s all take-out, although in the summer months they have some limited outside seating. About half of Pierogi’s Plus customers eat the pierogies as they are presented; just boiled; the other half take them home, and often fry them. I recommend you store them in your fridge at the Joinery, then take them on the plane and fry ‘em up at home.

You can choose from a vast array of ingredients that go inside Helen’s “secret recipe” dough of durum and semolina flours, water, canola oil, eggs and salt, with main dish entrees topped with sautéed onion sauce. Choose from cabbage, fillings (like cabbage and kielbasa or cabbage and mushrooms); cheese (cottage cheese and chives, mozzarella, provolone or ricotta.) and dozens more choices of potato, spinach and sauerkraut varieties. Dessert anyone? Fillings include but aren’t limited to apple pie, apricot and cheese or a sweet potato pierogi.

Today Pittsburgh is a major leisure tourism destination, and it’s largely because of all the experiences and activities you can see, do and find only in Pittsburgh! The city’s official website has all your connections to accommodations, restaurants, special events and more.

www.VisitPittsburgh.com

Joinery Hotel Pittsburgh

You’ll find a full list of accommodations at Visit Pittsburgh (above). I enjoyed a delightful stay at Joinery Hotel Pittsburgh, which, like Hotel del Coronado, is a Curio Collection property. 453 Boulevard of the Allies, Downtown www.joineryhotel.com

The Pittsburgh Pirates play at PNC Park (for tickets: www.MLB.com) and the Pittsburgh Steelers play at Acrisure Stadium Field on Pittsburgh’s North Shore (For tickets, www.steelers.com). For both teams, don your black and gold!

The website below is the USA visitor side of the falls site. It includes extensive lodging information including hotels, bed and breakfasts, RV and tent camping, dining, tours and more.

www.NiagaraFallsUSA.com

Niagara Falls State Park

You’ll find extensive information on all that the park offers including Top of the Falls restaurant, Maid of the Mist, trolley schedules, Cave of the Falls, hiking trails, special events, and honeymoon packages at local hotels.

www.niagarafallstatepark.com

Maid of the Mist

Operates April through November 5. www.Maidofthemist.com

Uber, Lyft and zTrip are all readily available throughout Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh’s Port Authority light rail ‘T’ system offers free rides between Downtown and the North Shore.

www.ridepdt.org

If you’d prefer to bike, Healthy Ride stations are conveniently located throughout the city.

www.pogoh.com

The Andy Warhol Museum www.warhol.org

Carnegie Museum of Natural History www.carnegiemnh.org

Carnegie Museum of Art www.carnegieart.org

Carnegie Science Center www.carnegiesciencecenter.org

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh www.pittsburghkids.org

Duquesne Incline www.duquesneincline.org

Mattress Factory

The Mattress Factory is an artist-centered museum, international residency program and is a renowned producer and presenter of installation art. www.mattress.org

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Established in 1893 in the middle of Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, Phipps provides a world-class garden experience encompassing 15 acres including a 14-room glasshouse and 23 distinct gardens. www.phipps.conservatory.org

Senator John Heinz History Center

An affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, the Senator John Heinz History Center preserves and interprets the history of Western Pennsylvanians through six floors of interactive exhibitions that feature iconic artifacts like the TV set from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and the world’s oldest jeep. The Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum is located on the second and third floors of the History Center. www.heinshistorycenter.org

Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium

First opened in 1989, the Zoo, located in Highland Park, sits on 77 acres and exhibits more than 4,000 animals representing 475 endangered species. www.pittsburghzoo.org

National Aviary

America’s only independent indoor nonprofit zoo dedicated to birds, the National Aviary is home to more than 500 birds representing more than 150 species from around the world, many of them threatened or endangered in the wild. Large walk-through habitats allow intimate, up-close interaction between visitors and free-flying birds, including opportunities to hand-feed and meet many species rarely found in zoos anywhere else in the world. Located in Allegheny Commons Park on Pittsburgh’s historic Northside. www.aviary.org