The Point - Where It All Began

The Point - Where It All Began

Photo: Matt Joseph, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Spooky Pittsburgh Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You have reached the end of the land. Here the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet to form the Ohio, and here every story you heard tonight began. In 1754 the French built Fort Duquesne on this tip of ground. Four years later, after Major Grant's defeat on the hill you climbed earlier, General John Forbes's army closed in, and in November 1758 the French destroyed their own fort and abandoned it. Look for the granite outline of Fort Duquesne in the lawn nearby.

The fountain can hurl water up to 150 feet into the air, and that water does not come from the three rivers you can see. It is drawn from an ancient glacial aquifer far below your feet, which Pittsburghers call the fourth river.

Ghost stories here are as old as the city: tales of French and British soldiers still keeping watch over the rivers. Believe them or not, stand here as the skyline lights up and the water roars, and you may feel you are not alone on watch. The blockhouse where you began is a short walk back across the lawn.

Getting here: Follow the riverside path west through Point State Park, about 6 minutes, to the fountain at the very tip of the Point.

Did you know?: The fountain was shut down for renovation in April 2009 and switched back on for the opening of the Three Rivers Arts Festival on June 7, 2013.

Photo op: Stand at the tip of the Point with the fountain behind you, the lit skyline on one side and Mount Washington rising across the Monongahela.

More on Wikipedia: Point State Park · Fort Duquesne

Stops on this tour

  1. Fort Pitt Blockhouse - The Last Piece of the Fort
  2. Portal Bridge - Inside Fort Pitt's Walls
  3. Burke Building - The Survivor of 1845
  4. Market Square - Where the City Began
  5. Allegheny County Courthouse - The Hill Where an Army Fell
  6. Bridge of Sighs - The Warden's Wife
  7. Omni William Penn Hotel - The Grand Hotel's Night Shift
  8. Trinity Cathedral Burial Ground - The Oldest Graves Downtown
  9. Byham Theater - Opened on Halloween Night
  10. Fort Duquesne Bridge - The Bridge to Nowhere
  11. The Point - Where It All Began