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44-697: This coal seam is named for its outcrop high on the sheer north face of Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , and it is considered to form the base of the upper coal measures of the Allegheny Plateau , now known as the Monongahela Group. The first reference to the Pittsburgh coal bed, named by H.D. Rodgers of the First Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, was on a 1751 map. The section of

88-476: A black streak in the rock, while others are of commercial importance. The Pittsburgh coal seam is laterally extensive. It commonly occurs in southwestern Pennsylvania in two benches, and the lower bench can be over six feet thick. The Pittsburgh rider coal bed, which overlies the lower bench, can range from 0 to 3 feet in thickness. In 1760, Captain Thomas Hutchins visited Fort Pitt and reported that there

132-527: A fire broke out in this mine, which continued to burn for years, leading to collapse of part of the face of the hill. Mining rights were formally purchased from the chiefs of the Six Nations in 1768, and from this point on, coal fueled the explosive growth of industry in the Pittsburgh Region. By 1796, coal mines extended along the face of Mount Washington for 300 fathoms (1800 feet), centered across

176-545: A foreland basin adjacent to the Alleghanian fold and thrust belt. The Pittsburgh coal bed formed during a hiatus in active clastic deposition that allowed for the development of a huge peat mire. The extensively thick peat deposit was destined to become one of the most valuable energy resources in the world. The distribution of some of the sediments, particularly the channel sands, may have been controlled in part by deep, Early Cambrian basement faults that were reactivated during

220-406: A mile of Pittsburgh, earned about $ 1.60 per week and could produce as many as 100 bushels of coal daily. The Pittsburgh seam was America's principal seam of coal production during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Pittsburgh-seam coal was ideally suited to making coke , particularly for iron blast furnaces. It fostered the development of much of southwestern Pennsylvania, particularly

264-428: A mine where the local topography permits. There will be no opportunity to drive an adit to a mine situated on a large flat plain, for instance. Also if the ground is weak, the cost of shoring up a long adit may outweigh its possible advantages. Access to a mine by adit has many advantages over the vertical access shafts used in shaft mining . Less energy is required to transport miners and heavy equipment into and out of

308-605: A section of the Pittsburgh seam known as the Connellsville district. Exploitation of the Pittsburgh-seam coal began slowly. Initially, blacksmiths and foundrymen made coal into coke to use in their hearths and small furnaces. During the early nineteenth century, entrepreneurs in western Pennsylvania adapted British coke-making practices to produce coke for local iron works. To make coke, coal is burned under controlled conditions to drive off volatile matter (gases expelled when coal

352-522: Is a hill in Pittsburgh , on the southern banks of the Monongahela River and Ohio River . In the early history of Pittsburgh , Mount Washington was known as Coal Hill, but Coal Hill was actually on the south bank of the Monongahela River. Easy access to the Pittsburgh coal seam 's outcrop near the base of Mount Washington allowed several mines to operate there. Also, rock was quarried from

396-740: Is a small remnant in Somerset County, Pennsylvania , in the Berlin Syncline between Negro Mountain and Savage Mountain . The Pittsburgh coal is one of many minable coal beds that were deposited across the Pennsylvanian (late Carboniferous ) and Permian (330–265mya) eras in a subsiding foreland basin that was filled in with sediments eroded from an ancient landmass located to the east. The Monongahela Group and other northern and central Appalachian Basin (fig. 1) Pennsylvanian sediments were deposited on an aggrading and prograding coastal plain within

440-630: Is about ten miles (16 km) long. Other examples are the Great County Adit in Cornwall, a 40-mile (64 km)-long network of adits that used to drain the whole Gwennap mining area, and the 3.9 miles (6.3 km) Sutro Tunnel at the Comstock Lode in Virginia City , Nevada . A side benefit of driving such extensive adits is that previously unknown ore-bodies can be discovered, helping finance

484-427: Is burned), leaving carbon and ash from the coal fused together in the form of coke. They made coke in turf-covered "mounds," in which coal burned slowly and without oxygen to drive off impurities. The adoption of beehive coke ovens in the 1830s spurred the use of Pittsburgh-seam coal in iron furnaces, and these ovens made better-quality coke than mounds. Pittsburgh-seam coal, especially the highest-quality coal found in

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528-463: Is composed mainly of sandstone, limestone, dolomite, and coal, and consists of a series of up to ten cyclothems . During each cyclothem, the land was flooded, allowing the accumulation of marine deposits such as shale , limestone and sandstone . When the sea level fell, coal formed from the remains of swampland. Some of the coal beds in the Monongahela group are erratic, sometimes little more than

572-445: Is critical to making high-quality iron. In addition, the Pittsburgh seam was located close to Pittsburgh, then the center of the growing American iron and steel industry. Coke had to be transported by water or rail to iron furnaces, and the Pittsburgh seam's proximity to iron furnaces gave the bed another competitive advantage over more distant coal seams that could produce coke. The mining of Pittsburgh-seam coal boomed off after 1860 as

616-475: Is defined by the deepest open adit which is known as the "drainage adit". The term mine drainage tunnel is also common, at least in the United States. Workings above this level (known as "above adit") will remain unflooded as long as the adit does not become blocked. All mine workings below both the drainage adit ("below adit") and the water table will flood unless mechanical means are used for drainage. Until

660-686: The Castle Shannon Incline , which closed in 1964, also served the hilltop community on Mount Washington with a lower station at the corner of East Carson Street and Arlington Avenue, just east of the present Station Square Transit Station . This incline was closed by its owner, the Pittsburgh Railways Company, just prior to all of their streetcar and bus routes being taken over by the Port Authority . The Monongahela and Duquesne Inclines allow access to Mount Washington's overlook of

704-592: The Potomac River during the spring floods. Eckhart Mines, Maryland began as a company town supporting this town, and this mine was merged with other later mines to become what is now Consol Energy . In 1842, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad reached Cumberland, followed in 1850 by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal . These allowed large-scale exploitation. Mount Washington, Pittsburgh (mountain) Mount Washington

748-633: The Alleghany orogeny (Root and Hoskins, 1977; Root, 1995). Significant parts of the clay layer immediately below the Pittsburgh coal rest on an unconformity , that is, an old eroded surface. For this reason, the Pittsburgh seam is taken as the basal member of the Monongahela Group. The underlying erosion surface is considered the top of the Conemaugh Group, formerly known as the Lower barren measures because this formation contains few coal seams. The Monongahela

792-476: The Connellsville district, was the best coal in America for making coke. When converted into coke, it was sufficiently strong to withstand the weight of iron ore that was piled with coke inside iron furnaces. It has a high proportion of carbon, which accelerates combustion, and a low proportion of impurities, including ash and moisture, which retards combustion. Pittsburgh coal also has a low proportion of sulfur, which

836-474: The Connellsville district. However, the iron and steel industry's demand rose so rapidly that it became clear by 1900 that this district could not satisfy demand by itself. During the 1900s and 1910s, mine companies exploited the Lower Connellsville district of the Pittsburgh seam, adding greatly to total output. The growth of Pittsburgh-seam mining was so massive, and so intertwined with coke production for

880-438: The Monongahela from Wood Street. 40°25′55.74″N 80°0′24.08″W  /  40.4321500°N 80.0066889°W  / 40.4321500; -80.0066889 By 1814, there were at least 40 coal mines in the Pittsburgh region, worked from adits in the face of the coal seam using room and pillar methods. By 1830, the city of Pittsburgh consumed more than 400 tons per day of bituminous coal for domestic and light industrial use. In

924-566: The Mount Washington hillside near the Duquesne Incline tracks. Its earliest known advertisers were Iron City Beer , Clark's Teaberry Gum and WTAE-TV Channel 4. In 1967, the Alcoa aluminum company took over the sign and changed its plain background into a gray-and-white mosaic font pattern that spelled out "PITTSBURGH" when seen in the daytime, giving the sign new popularity. Alcoa became

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968-756: The Pittsburgh seam under the Georges Creek Valley of Western Maryland is known as The Big Vein This is isolated from the rest of the Pittsburgh seam by Savage Mountain (part of the Deer Park anticline), the Negro Mountain anticline, the Laurel Hill anticline, and the Chestnut Ridge anticline. Between these anticlines, the strata containing the Pittsburgh coal have been almost obliterated by erosion. The exception

1012-399: The downtown area of Pittsburgh. Tourists experience the view while riding two of only a few remaining inclines in the country. The inclines remain the best way for thousands of Pittsburghers on Mount Washington to get to their jobs, entertainment and shopping in downtown Pittsburgh and Station Square . In the 1930s, a huge neon billboard sign, 226 feet wide and 30 feet high, was erected on

1056-412: The early 19th century, Pittsburgh coal became the city's primary fuel source: about 250,000 bushels (approximately 400 short tons) of coal were consumed daily for domestic and light industrial use. The primary reason for the switch from wood to coal was one of economics. In 1809, a cord of wood cost $ 2.00 and a bushel of coal cost $ 0.06, delivered. The coal was plentiful and laborers, working in mines within

1100-421: The higher temperature underground and will naturally exhaust from vertical shafts, some of which are sunk specifically for this purpose. Most adits are designed to slope slightly upwards from the entrance so that water will flow freely out of the mine. Mines that have adits can be at least partly drained of water by gravity alone or power-assisted gravity. The depth to which a mine can be drained by gravity alone

1144-522: The hill. Gray sandstone, for example, was quarried at Coal Hill for the second Allegheny County Courthouse . By 1876, the name had been changed to Mount Washington, and a year later, the view of the City of Pittsburgh was first drawn from Mount Washington. Many photos of the Pittsburgh skyline are from Mount Washington, due to the elevation of the hill overlooking the river valley and Downtown Pittsburgh below. The original switchback trails that wound up

1188-505: The invention of the steam engine this was the main restriction on deep mining. Adits are useful for deeper mines. Water only needs to be raised to the drainage adit rather than to the surface. Because of the great reduction in ongoing costs that a drainage adit can provide, they have sometimes been driven for great distances for this purpose. One example is the Milwr tunnel in North Wales, which

1232-439: The iron and steel industry, that the late nineteenth and early twentieth century has been called the "Golden Age of King Coal, Queen Coke and Princess Steel." Beginning in the 1910s, important technological and industrial changes spelled the end of the Pittsburgh seam's importance. By-product coke ovens, which yielded more coke per ton from coal, replaced most beehive coke ovens from 1910 to 1940. By-product ovens utilized coal that

1276-403: The largest remaining block in southwestern Pennsylvania and adjacent areas of West Virginia. Much of the remaining resource to the south of Marion County, W. Va., and west through much of Ohio is high in ash and sulfur, and is not likely to be extensively mined in the near future given current economic trends. The Big Vein was discovered in 1804, in an outcrop east of Frostburg, Maryland , but it

1320-545: The late 1970s and 1980s as the American steel industry closed many steel mills in the Pittsburgh region and elsewhere. The decline of Pittsburgh-seam mining brought large-scale social and economic changes to southwestern Pennsylvania, as unemployment climbed, the region lost population due to out-migration, businesses dependent on coal miners' income folded, and municipalities had declining tax bases. Despite two centuries of mining, about 16 billion short tons of resources remain, with

1364-426: The latter as a High Occupancy Vehicle tunnel. The Liberty Tunnel through Mount Washington opened in 1928. The Fort Pitt Tunnel beneath and through Mount Washington opened September 1, 1960. Adit An adit (from Latin aditus , entrance) or stulm is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine . Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at

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1408-491: The lowest convenient level. Adits are also used to explore for mineral veins . Although most strongly associated with mining, the term adit is sometimes also used in the context of underground excavation for non-mining purposes; for example, to refer to smaller underground passageways excavated for underground metro systems , to provide pedestrian access to stations ( pedestrian adits ), and for access required during construction ( construction adits ). Adits are driven into

1452-423: The mine. It is also much easier to bring ore or coal out of the mine. Horizontal travel by means of narrow gauge tramway or cable car is also much safer and can move more people and ore than vertical elevators. In the past horses and pit ponies were used. In combination with shafts, adits form an important element in the ventilation of a mine : in simple terms, cool air will enter through an adit, be warmed by

1496-436: The rapidly expanding iron and steel industry adopted coke. The output of the iron and steel industry burgeoned during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as demand for steel products surged. To meet the corresponding demand for coke, Pittsburgh-seam mines vastly increased their production from 4.3 million tons of coal in 1880 to a peak of forty million tons in 1916. Most of the pre-1900 growth in coal output occurred in

1540-429: The side of a hill or mountain, and are often used when an ore body is located inside the mountain but above the adjacent valley floor or coastal plain. In cases where the mineral vein outcrops at the surface, the adit may follow the lode or vein until it is worked out, in which case the adit is rarely straight. The use of adits for the extraction of ore is generally called drift mining . Adits can only be driven into

1584-470: The sign in 2014. As of May 2015, Lamar Advertising and the City of Pittsburgh were in disagreement over the proper use and maintenance responsibilities of the sign. In June 2016, Lamar Advertising erected a new vinyl sign over the old neon sign for the Sprint Corporation; a gold banner with black letters reading "Pittsburgh WINS with Black & Yellow". Many Pittsburgh natives reacted negatively to

1628-509: The sign's most well-known advertiser, remaining for the next 25 years. In 1992, Miles Laboratories moved their U.S. headquarters from Elkhart, Indiana to Pittsburgh and became the sign's new advertiser. In April 1995, the Miles brand name was absorbed by its parent company, Bayer AG and the sign was changed to feature the Bayer name and its circular cross logo. Bayer AG declined to renew their lease on

1672-537: The steep slopes of Mount Washington were barely passable to a team of horses pulling a loaded wagon. Immigrants, predominantly from Germany, settled Mount Washington by the early 19th century and worked in the plants adjacent to the Monongahela River. They became weary of climbing steep footpaths and steps to their homes, from the river valley, after work. They remembered the standseilbahns (inclines) of their former country, and proposals were advanced to construct one or more of them along Coal Hill. The Monongahela Incline

1716-548: The wording "black & yellow" as opposed to the city's traditional "black & gold" moniker. On April 30, 2019, with Sprint's lease on the sign expired by that time, Lamar mounted a new sign bearing an American flag representing the National Flag Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Pittsburgh. The future of the long-rusted Pittsburgh sign and its neon lighting is unknown as there are no current plans for renovation. The first tunnel through Mount Washington

1760-430: Was a mine on Coal Hill, the original name given to Mount Washington across the Monongahela River from the fort. The coal was extracted from drift mine entries into the Pittsburgh coal seam at outcrop along the hillside about 200 feet above the river. The coal was poured into trenches dug into the hillside, rolled to the edge of the river, and transported by canoe and boats to the military garrison. Sometime around 1765,

1804-401: Was lower quality than Pittsburgh-seam coal, greatly reducing demand for Pittsburgh-seam coal. The Great Depression also contributed significantly to the decline of production. Pittsburgh-seam output continued to fall after a World War II surge as steel mills adopted alternative fuels such as natural gas and oil and improved the energy efficiency of iron furnaces. Another major blow came during

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1848-527: Was not until 1824 that small-scale shipment to Georgetown began. The first mine was the Neff mine, later known as the Eckhart mine 39°39′4.46″N 78°54′1.59″W  /  39.6512389°N 78.9004417°W  / 39.6512389; -78.9004417 . Initially, mining was seasonal, confined largely to winter time. Coal was hauled overland to Cumberland, Maryland and then loaded onto flatboats for shipment down

1892-626: Was the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel , which began life as a coal mine but was extended through from the Mount Washington Coal Incline to Saw Mill Run in 1861. This was followed by the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel for Pittsburgh Railways and Wabash Tunnel for the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway , both in opening in 1904. The former continues in use by Pittsburgh Light Rail and

1936-530: Was the first of these to be built in 1869–1870. The Duquesne Incline opened to the public in May 1877, and it was one of four inclined planes climbing Mount Washington that carried passengers and freight to the residential area that had spread along the top of the bluff. As the hilltop communities were virtually inaccessible by any other means, many of Pittsburgh's inclines carried horses and wagons as well as foot passengers. All carried some light freight. A third incline,

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