Railroad tracks in and around Pittsburgh’s Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area aren’t just scenery, they’re the backbone of a freight corridor that has been moving the region’s story for nearly 150 years.
One of the most important lines is the former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, chartered in 1875 and known as the “Little Giant” because the heavy tonnage it moved was far out of proportion to its modest mileage. Its original route ran northwest from Pittsburgh to Youngstown, Ohio, then expanded by leasing branches that stretched southeast along the Monongahela River through Homestead and McKeesport and along the Youghiogheny River to Connellsville, where it connected with the Western Maryland Railway.
The mission was clear: Haul coal, iron ore, limestone and steel between industrial centers and link the region’s mills to national markets…