Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, North America

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• published: 25 May 2013
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Pittsburgh is the seat of Allegheny County and with a population of 307,484 is the second-largest city in the U.S. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a metropolitan CSA population of 2,661,369 it is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia and the 22nd-largest in the U.S. Pittsburgh is known as both "the Steel City" for its more than 300 related businesses and "the City of Bridges" for its world record 446 bridges. The city also features 29 skyscrapers, two inclined railways, a pre-revolutionary fortification, and the source of the Ohio at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny. This vital link of the Atlantic coast and the Mid-west cuts through the mineral-rich Alleghenies and made the Pittsburgh area coveted by the French and British empires, Virginia, Whiskey Rebels, Civil War raiders and media networks. Legendary for its steel, Pittsburgh also led innovations and industries in aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, appliances, sports, transport, computing, retail, autos and electronics. This creative wealth placed Pittsburgh third (after New York City and Chicago) in corporate headquarter jobs for much of the 20th century, second only to New York in bank assets with more stockholders per capital than any other U.S. city. America's 1980s shift from heavy industry to a service economy laid-off millions from the area's sprawling steel mills and electronics/appliances factories. The diaspora of "blue collar" workers was joined by thousands of "white collar" employees when multi-billion dollar corporate raids relocated the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters of Gulf Oil, Sunbeam, Rockwell and Westinghouse. This status as a world industrial and banking center, its "melting pot" of industrial immigrant workers, and top 10 rank among the largest cities in the U.S. until 1950 and metros until 1980 has left the region with a plethora of internationally-regarded museums, medical centers, parks, research infrastructure, libraries and a vibrantly diverse cultural district. These legacies have helped Pittsburgh win first place as America's "most livable city" by Places Rated Almanac, Forbes, and The Economist while inspiring National Geographic and Today to name the city a top world destination. More tangibly, the area has added 3,304 hotel rooms since 2004 and boasts higher occupancy than 11 comparable cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore. Google, Intel and Apple are among 1,600 tech firms generating $10.8 billion in annual Pittsburgh payrolls. Since the 1980s the city has also served as national headquarters for both federal cyber defense and robotics. The area boasts 31 non-profit universities and colleges including seven venerable universities in the city, with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon as national leaders in R&D; expenditures spurring multiple startups annually. The nation's fifth-largest bank, 9 Fortune 500s and six of the top 300 US law firms make their global headquarters in the Pittsburgh area, while RAND, BNYMellon, Nova Chemicals, Bayer, FedEx and GSK have large regional bases that helped Pittsburgh become the sixth best metro for U.S. job growth despite the global recession. Area retail and housing have also grown despite the subprime crisis with the multi-million dollar SouthSide Works, Bakery Square, and Washington's Landing repurposing former industrial sites. Pittsburgh is a leader in LEED technology, with 60 total and 10 of the world's first "green" buildings, including downtown's convention center, even as Shell and Chevron have invested billions in the area's energy renaissance with Marcellus shale. A renaissance of Pittsburgh's 115 year old film industry that boasts the world's first movie theater has grown from the long running 3R Film Festival to an influx of major productions including Disney and Paramount offices with the largest sound stage outside Los Angeles and New York. According to the United States Census Bureau, Pittsburgh has a total area of 58.3 square miles (151 km2), of which 55.6 square miles (144 km2) is land and 2.8 square miles (7.3 km2) (or 4.75%) is water.