Pittsburgh In Baldwin's Pittsburgh

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When thinking of Pittsburgh as a whole most people would immediately associate the municipality with the title of “The City of Bridges”. But if you think of Pittsburgh as a whole during the nineteenth century, the city would be more commonly known as “The Smoky City”. The connotation of being known as the smoky city is not necessarily a positive attribute in most individual’s eyes. However, Pittsburgh was labeled with this title due to the different innovations that occurred in the city during the 1800’s. In Leland Baldwin’s novel, Pittsburgh – The Story of a City, Baldwin discusses the city in many different aspects from the mid 1750’s to the late 1860’s. Throughout this span of time the city went through many changes from the frontier days to becoming a booming commercial city.
But despite Pittsburgh’s growth in population many of its residents started to become concerned about their hometown and its future. These Pittsburgh natives were concerned for reasons such as; the arrival of railroads wiping out the main source of trade, a change in the social relation of the city due to a rise in manufacturing, and the competition in the iron industry.
In the 1850’s Pittsburgh natives saw a significant change in their city especially when it came to trade. During Pittsburgh’s frontier day’s trade was more interregional. It was common for the city to trade with Philadelphia or Baltimore, and then for …show more content…

As Pittsburgh started to grow in the manufacturing aspect there started to be a change in the social relation of the city. As stated in the novel, “ The most illuminating guide to Pittsburgh’s growth is found in the population statistics and in the summaries of manufactories” (Wade, pg. 218). The Pittsburgh natives were excited to see their city start back up in the right direction after their original commercial vision did not go as

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