Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Keystone Crossroads: Rust or Revival? explores the urgent challenges pressing upon Pennsylvania's cities. Four public media newsrooms are collaborating to report in depth on the root causes of our state's urban crisis -- and on possible solutions. Keystone Crossroads offers reports on radio, web, social media, television and newspapers, and through public events.Our partner stations are WHYY in Philadelphia, WPSU in State College and witf in Harrisburg. Read all of the partner stories here.Pittsburgh’s WQED joins the collaboration as an associate partner. Support for this project comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The Historic Waterfront Development That Helped Transform Pittsburgh: Point State Park

Irina Zhorov
/
90.5 WESA
Dan Hennessy (right) and Jane McGrane boat, swim, and fish in Pittsburgh's rivers. Hennessy said he watched the waterfronts transform, starting with the Point, from industrial areas to more accessible public spaces.

On a recent weekend stroll at Point State Park, in Pittsburgh, visitors sunned themselves in the grass and along the low walls of the park. The park is a triangle of green at the very place where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers meet to form the Ohio River. At the tip of the Point kids splashed in a fountain, and a rainbow shimmered through the spray. Looking east along the rivers bridges stitched the city together with yellow seams.

The fountain at Point State Park came on in 1974. Then, it was the first waterfront development in Pittsburgh. A bird’s eye view over the heart of the city today shows parks, stadiums, museums, and marinas all built up along the picturesque waterfronts.

But the emphasis on developing waterfronts for recreation and admiration in Pittsburgh — and other Pennsylvania cities large and small — is a relatively new idea. Or at least a return to an old one.

Read more of this report at the website of our partner Keystone Crossroads.