Three decades ago this stretch of riverfront was post-industrial wasteland, and today you are on the North Shore, an entertainment and cultural district for an entire metropolitan region. The land along this bank of the Allegheny was once covered with industrial infrastructure: rail yards, warehouses, and the logistics backbone of a working industrial city. When the steel industry collapsed in the 1980s it left behind vacant land and broken communities, but it also freed up riverfront property that had been unavailable for generations.
The North Shore redevelopment began with PNC Park and Heinz Field in 2001, and added the Andy Warhol Museum, the Children's Museum, the Carnegie Science Center, and dozens of restaurants and bars in the years that followed. The three rivers — Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio — are now recreational and cultural assets rather than industrial corridors. The Three Rivers Heritage Trail connects miles of riverside paths on both banks.
Pittsburgh has 446 bridges, more than any city in the world; eighteen of them are painted the city's signature yellow, the color of the Steelers and Pirates uniforms. The North Shore is what happens when a city decides its rivers belong to the people.