The Three Rivers now overflow with wildlife, water lovers
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Passengers on a Gateway Clipper Fleet boat on the Ohio River get a great view of the Point and the city. -
Downtown as seen from a Gateway Clipper Fleet boat on the Monongahela River. -
The view from a Gateway Clipper Fleet boat beneath the Fort Duquesne Bridge over the Allegheny River. -
Young river enthusiasts look out over the Ohio River toward the Point during a Gateway Clipper Fleet outing July 13. -
Regis Kudrav, of Washington, Pa., with his children Olivia, 7, Clark, 4, and Grant, 8, ride on the Allegheny River. -
The Kudrav family rides beneath the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River.
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There are dozens of ways to cross the rivers in the water-rich Pittsburgh region, but a growing number of people here aren't looking for a way to get across the rivers -- they want to be on them.
They are the kayakers, the boaters, the anglers -- those who take advantage of the network of waterways that make up Allegheny County and its neighbors.
It's part of the landscape, especially during the warm weather months, to see boats dotting the Ohio, kayakers paddling along the Allegheny and jet skiers zipping along the Monongahela.
A few decades ago, when Pittsburgh's rivers were the facilitators of industry and a convenient spot to dump waste, the rivers were not the destination for recreation they have become.
If Pittsburgh was "hell with the lid off," as a visitor famously described it, the city's rivers were as the River Styx, which in Greek mythology divided the Earth from the Underworld.
"The rivers were just horrible. They were the dumping grounds for people and industries. There really wasn't any recreational use at all," said Daniel J. Burns, a retired Duquesne police officer and the author of "Pittsburgh's Rivers," a book that traces the history of the city's rivers from 1753, when George Washington surveyed the area, to today.
• 981 -- The number of miles the Ohio River flows from the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at the fabled Point in Pittsburgh to join the Mississippi at Cairo, Ill.
• 325 -- The number of miles the Allegheny River flows from its source in Raymond, Pa., running through New York and Pennsylvania to the Point.
• 128 -- The length of the Monongahela River from its source in Fairmont, W.Va., to the Point.
Just as the collapse of the steel industry changed the city, it also changed the rivers, he said. The waterways have improved because of numerous factors, including a decrease in pollution from factories, the enactment of the Clean Water Act and the work of environmental and community groups.
"It's a great thing. People are returning," Mr. Burns said.
People aren't the only ones coming back to the rivers. Wildlife is, too.
A study of the locks on Pittsburgh rivers in the 1950s yielded only one type of fish -- the bluegill, said Denny Tubbs, outreach and education coordinator for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's southwest region. Now, rivers in the Pittsburgh area have 53 recorded species of fish, from small minnow to big game fish. And in the last few years, large bass fishing tournaments have been held here.
First Published August 12, 2010 12:00 am
