Pittsburgh Facts, Pittsburgh Firsts

Pittsburgh is a neat city with a very rich past. I bet even people who have lived here all their lives won't know all of these fun facts!

• Pittsburgh was named in 1758, incorporated as a borough in 1794 and chartered as a city in 1816.

• Pittsburgh audiences enjoy the nation's fifth oldest opera company.

• Pittsburgh ranked in the top five Most Livable Cities in the 1983, 1989 and 1985 editions of the "Places Rated Almanac."

• The fountain at Point State Park, right at the tip of the golden triangle (downtown Pittsburgh) is fed by a glacial formation and sprays 6,000 gallons per minute.

• Pittsburgh is home to nine Fortune 500 companies.

• The Carnegie Museum of Art opened in 1895 as the world's first museum of modern art.

• Mister Rogers' real neighborhood was Oakland, home to WQED (the first public television in the country) and the "Neighborhood of Make Believe."

• Allegheny County has more than 1,700 bridges, 720 within city limits, and 15 major bridges crossing downtown Pittsburgh alone.

• Pittsburgh lost the "h" in its spelling in 1891, but after 20 years of protest, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names relented and the "h" was restored.

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