Mount Washington is a hill in Pittsburgh on the southern banks of the Monongahela River and Ohio River. In the early history of Pittsburgh, Mount Washington was known as Coal Hill, but Coal Hill was actually on the south bank of the Monongahela River. Easy access to the Pittsburgh coal seam’s outcrop near the base of Mt. Washington allowed several mines to operate there. Also, rock was quarried from the hill. Gray sandstone, for example, was quarried at Coal Hill for the second Allegheny County Courthouse.
By 1876, the name had been changed to Mount Washington, and a year later, the view of the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was first drawn from Mt. Washington. Many photos of the Pittsburgh skyline are from Mt. Washington due to the elevation of the hill overlooking the river valley and Downtown Pittsburgh, PA below.
Inclines
The original switchback trails that wound up the steep slopes of Mt. Washington were barely passable to a team of horses pulling a loaded wagon. Immigrants from Germany settled Mount Washington by the early 19th century and worked in the plants adjacent to the Monongahela River. They became weary of climbing steep footpaths and steps to their homes, from the river valley, after work. They remembered their former country’s standseilbahns (inclines), and proposals were advanced to construct one or more of them along Coal Hill. The Monongahela Incline was the first to be built in 1869–1870. The Duquesne Incline opened to the public in May 1877, and it was one of four inclined planes climbing Mount Washington that carried passengers and freight to the residential area that had spread along the top of the bluff. As the hilltop communities were virtually inaccessible by any other means, many of Pittsburgh’s inclines carried horses, wagons, and foot passengers. All carried some light freight. A third incline, the Castle Shannon Incline, which closed in 1964, also served the hilltop community on Mt. Washington with a lower station at the corner of East Carson Street and Arlington Avenue, just east of the present Station Square Transit Station. Its owner, the Pittsburgh Railways Company, closed this incline just before the Port Authority took over all of its streetcar and bus routes.
Beneath the Mt. Washington
The first tunnel through Mt. Washington was the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel, which began life as a coal mine but extended from the Mt. Washington Coal Incline to Saw Mill Run in 1861. The Mount Washington Transit Tunnel followed this for Pittsburgh Railways and Wabash Tunnel for the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway, both in 1904. The former continues in use by Pittsburgh Light Rail and the latter as a High Occupancy Vehicle tunnel. Bed Bug Exterminator Pittsburgh
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