SIGHTS AND SOUNDS FROM THE BLUFF
Standing in this spot, you have a view over the Monongahela River and can see historical buildings in the South Side Works that date all the way back to the 19th century. Signs of this history cannot be easily heard here, but they can be seen in the lasting imprint of the old brick buildings.
Prior to the Allegheny Jail being built (the red buildings to your right), the area below the Boulevard of the Allies was formerly a large freight yard where tons of coal and steel was trained in and out of the city about fifty years ago. This has since been replaced by the Allegheny County Jail and Interstate 376, completed in 1972 (Historical Maps of Pittsburgh). Along with this, the hillside of the Monongahela River was formerly lined with inclines that took people to and from work. People used to walk across the bridges or take the streetcar/trolley to work, many employed with steel industry jobs. The skyline used to be extremely cloudy due to all the steel mills which burned coal.
Considering the evolution of this landscape, one of the most striking changes involves the sound of traffic heard on the Bluff. In the nineteenth century, animals pulled carriages with metal wheels that produced loud noises as they rolled along the ground. In the present, rubber tires that lessen the road noise but allow faster speeds. The sounds of boats and trains have dissipated, horns with different pitches that would have echoed through the valley. Though the vast number of trains are gone, occasionally you can hear one across the river. Occasionally boats can be heard in the summer when water activity increases with warmer temperatures. These individual sounds seem to fade into the background, however, because of the road noise. Our ears tend to focus on the sound of the road, and don’t notice other sounds. Not all sounds and memories are lost, but they have gradually transformed.
What do you see happening in the next fifty years at this location that may alter the soundscape?
Another highway installation?
A zipline from Duquesne to the South Side?
A new fire station constructed?
All electric vehicles?
Something else?
Further Discussion
Fifty years may seem like a long time, but fifty years is all it took for this soundscape to be completely transformed. Though some of the ideas may seem far-fetched, who would have ever thought fifty years ago that we would have only two inclines remaining along the Monongahela River or that we would even have electric vehicles like Tesla. An all-electric vehicle soundscape would still include the sound of tires on the roadways, but little to no sound from gasoline powered engines. My grandfather always told me stories of when he worked in the steel mills and how he got to work by taking the inclines. The sounds of steel industry dominated the soundscape back then. From the sound mills to the sounds of the worker transport vehicles to the sounds of the boats and trains shipping the steel. This goes to show that our soundscape is always evolving and it is likely to change again in the next fifty years.
With these sweeping changes, it seems as though history is forgotten if not scrubbed from existence. Pittsburgh is not the first city to undergo dramatic transformation. Georges-Eugène “Baron” Haussmann oversaw the largest network of public works projects in Paris. “During his nearly two-decade tenure as Prefect of the Seine, Haussmann ordered the mass demolition of working-class neighborhoods in the central arrondissements, the expansion of boulevards that cut through those recently demolished neighborhoods, the annexation of outer districts into the city of Paris, as well as an expansive system of parks, gardens, and sewers”(Blaszkiewicz). Areas were demolished to make way for new boulevards to optimize travel with direct routes. This is a very similar to the changes visible from the Bluff, particularly the construction of Interstate 376. With this construction project, an entire rail yard was taken away altering the soundscape from the sound of machinery and trials to the sound of vehicular traffic. This also allowed for more vehicular travel to and from work, lessening the need for street cars and inclines. This also pulled away from the suburbs as vehicles became more affordable and the new highways became the quickest form of travel. We have left behind the sounds of industry and, if you listen closely, you can hear the new sound of our landscape on the Bluff.
Works Cited
Pittsburgh Historical Maps, https://www.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=63f24d1466f24695bf9dfc5bf6828126
Jacek Blaszkiewicz, “Listening to the Old City: Street Cries and Urbanization ca. 1860,” Journal of Musicology 37, No. 2 (2020): 123–157.