Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh Roads

Pennsylvania Roads

Here is the western half of the state map from the 1929 edition of Pennsylvania Highways, which was a travel magazine published by the Pennsylvania Department of Highways. Here is the eastern half of the map and the middle section. I will also try to stitch them together into one image.

So far, I've identified the routes of PA 88 and US 19 and of PA 18 from the West Virginia state line to Erie.

Pittsburgh Roads

1913 Mendenhall Map

This map was a "quick and dirty" scan from a 1913 guidebook to Pennsylvania published by Mendenhall. There is a text section with descriptions of how to travel from Point A to Point B in Pennsylvania, plus a large fold-out map of the state. There are also smaller inset maps, including this one of "Pittsburg." More scans will be forthcoming.

Pittsburgh Map Book

These are three scanned pages from a Pittsburgh Map Book published in the 1960s. The book was produced by the Champion Map Corporation of Charlotte, North Carolina. It was distributed by Triangle News Company in McKees Rocks (Triangle does/did handle book and magazine distribution to shops and stores).

The book has 32 pages of maps, plus an overview map and a map of downtown Pittsburgh with building locations. There are also 20 pages of street directory, listed by township and borough. Unfortunately, there is no exact date of publication anywhere; just clues to when it might have been produced. In no particular order:

I-79 is shown as completed from the south to just beyond Bridgeville, just short of the Kirwin Heights exit. Between the Parkway West and Franklin Park, the interstate is shown as I-279 while the highway between Franklin Park and downtown is shown as I-79.
On the "Central Business District" map, the Manchester Bridge is shown, with access via Water Street (on the Mon side) and Duquesne Way (on the Allegheny side).
Also on the map of downtown, the "United States Steel Corp. Bldg." location is shown, with the note "Proposed-Under Construction."
Gateway buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 are located, although the Hilton isn't.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is shown as I-80S and the Parkway East is tagged I-76.
Where named, the appropriate rail lines are tagged "Penn Central."

There are probably other clues, but these are here for a start.

For the Western Pennsylvania "road geeks" meeting on October 16, 1999, here is a page that shows Moon Twp. and the Greater Pittsburgh Airport and a page that shows Coraopolis and Robinson Twp.

Sewickley Bridge Information

This drawing shows the old configuration of the Sewickley Bridge and Narrows Run Road, including the location of the remains of the old approach and street car tracks. There is also a postcard from the opening of the "new" Sewickley Bridge, along with details about the card. The opening of the new bridge on Wednesday, October 21, 1981, was commemorated with a special section in the local weekly newspapers, the Coraopolis Record and the Sewickley Herald. While it was mainly an advertising supplement, there were some interesting articles about the history of the bridge, extensive profiles of those who were on the Bridge Committee, and some other features. The intro article, "The Sewickley Bridge," gives a good overview of the project. A second article, "Arthur Hedgren, bridge designer," profiles the designer of the bridge and gives some details about the project. "Reflections of the Sewickley Bridge" was one of the reports written and submitted to state and federal officials when seeking a new bridge.

Slightly to the east to be considered Pittsburgh, but here is an article I wrote for the Evening Sentinel (way back in the dark past, when I was a reporter for that rag) about the toll booth at the Blue Mountain Interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.