Trains once pulled in where you are now, inside the former Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad passenger terminal, built in 1901 and now converted into a festival marketplace and entertainment complex. The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad — known as the Little Giant for the freight volume it carried relative to its modest route mileage — was a critical link in the steel supply chain, connecting Pittsburgh's mills to the Great Lakes ports and Minnesota's iron ore mines. The terminal is a fine example of Beaux Arts railroad architecture: a long headhouse with an ornate limestone facade facing the Monongahela River, sheltering the tracks and platforms behind it.
When passenger service ended in 1974, the terminal was slated for demolition. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation intervened, purchased the building for one dollar, and led its conversion into restaurants, retail, and entertainment. Station Square opened in 1976, one of the pioneering adaptive reuse projects in American urban history.
The Gateway Clipper Fleet river excursion boats depart from the terminal's docks, where working barges once loaded steel. Look at the limestone facade and find the original railroad lettering still carved in the stone. The railroad is gone but the stone remembers.