Notice the summit beneath your feet: Mount Washington, three hundred and sixty-seven feet above the rivers, looking at one of the most famous city views in America. Spread before you is the Golden Triangle: the point where the Allegheny and the Monongahela converge to form the Ohio River, with the towers of downtown Pittsburgh rising behind the fountain at Point State Park. The view has been ranked repeatedly among the most beautiful urban panoramas in the world.
What makes it extraordinary is the combination of geography and density: the rivers come together at a sharp angle, the downtown buildings cluster on the narrow triangle between them, and Pittsburgh's 446 bridges arc across the water in every direction. At night the bridges are illuminated and their reflections multiply across both rivers. Mount Washington was home to workers in the mills and coke plants along the south bank of the Monongahela.
The neighborhood's working-class housing lines the streets behind you. The restaurants along Grandview Avenue compete fiercely for the tables with the best river views. Pittsburgh has always had this relationship with its geography: the hills that made the city difficult to build also made it magnificent to behold.