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Devastation and Renewal: An Environmental History of Pittsburgh and Its Region (History of the Urban Environment) (History of the Urban Environment) |
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Posting History AbstractNineteenth- or early twentieth-century visitors to Pittsburgh were frequently shocked by the ways the industrial environment dominated the natural landscape. Steel mills sprawled across hundreds of acres along the rivers. Land and waterways were crisscrossed by dozens of bridges (some carrying molten iron), miles of railroad track, pipelines, and a net of electrical, telephone, and telegraph wires. Pittsburgh's rivers ran brown from the toxic chemicals, sewage, and refuse that filled them. Coal mines, coke ovens, and their huge piles of debris and ash waste littered the bald, muddy hills. After forests were cut down for fuel, the remaining flora and fauna died from the acidic effluents, garbage, and slag that piled up. Street lamps glowed day and night to compensate for the morass of thick, black smoke that hung in the air, and citizens became accustomed to dramatic displays of light, color, and sound, as the mills issued jets of flaming gas, black smoke, and white steam into the sky. Amidst this churning machine of capitalism, workers dwelt where they could, in rickety row houses built into the overused hills, often accessible only by steep and winding alleys of stairs, and without sewers or proper drinking water. As James Parton succinctly commented in 1866, Pittsburgh was "hell with the lid taken off." <P>Today, the steel industry that defined Pittsburgh for over a century is virtually gone. The sky is blue, fish swim in the rivers, and the hillsides are green and lush. The people enjoy access to many large public parks and trails. <P>In Devastation and Renewal, leading environmental scholars examine Pittsburgh's process of reclamation, as well as how power was used to cause change or prevent it, and who benefited from environmental initiatives and why. They trace how modern Pittsburgh developed out of a checkered environmental history, and how sometimes environmental shifts come from surprising sources. During the heyday of the manufacturing era, some Pittsburghers saw their sooty sky as a sign of an exceptionally strong work ethic, and even touted the smoke as healthful, while their opponents believed that a dirty environment led to low moral character. Gaming clubs were at the forefront of the conservation movement in the early twentieth century when pollution had decimated wildlife populations. During the Depression, the federal government sent WPA crews to seal abandoned mines-temporarily fixing the acid leakage problem-but the impetus was to create jobs for the unemployed, not improve the environment. In the end, Pittsburgh made its largest gains in restoring the environment as the economy shifted from manufacturing- to service-based. <P>The authors in Devastation and Renewal assert that there is still a long road ahead for reclamation and conservation. If a lesson may be taken from history, it is that changes will come along circuitous routes as they have before, often springing from self-interest, and obstructed by battles among competing civic groups, regional and national government agencies, individuals, and corporations.
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