Pittsburg, Pa., Coal Boats at Point Bridge

A view of coal boats at Point Bridge, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, circa 1907-1914. Caption reads: "The Point is the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany Rivers to form the great Ohio. It is the busiest commercial point of the coal, iron, and steel regions. Fleets of barges, coal-laden, lay upon the river like the black squaws of some vast checkerboard. Consequential coal boats steam noisily up and down, vaunting clouds of milky smoke, churning up the muddy waters with their paddle wheels and leaving in their wake white tracks of foam. A network of railroad tracks lay along each bank. Beyond the railroads are the mills, smoke pouring from a myriad of stacks." Postcard number: 221, 1331