Category: News || By John Barna
City and county officials joined leaders of the Allegheny Trail Alliance and executives from U.S. Steel on Thursday to celebrate the addition of the former McKeesport Connecting Railroad bridge to the rail-trail network linking Pittsburgh with Cumberland, Md., and Washington, D.C.
The bridge across the Monongahela between the city's Riverton neighborhood and South Duquesne will help close a major gap that forces bicyclists, hikers and joggers to use busy surface streets after leaving the trail at the McKees Point Marina.
U.S. Steel Chairman and CEO John P. Surma, left, presents a ceremonial deed to Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato and McKeesport Mayor James Brewster.
Built in 1890, the bridge originally served as the Pennsylvania Railroad's only entry into the city of McKeesport. Later owned by the Union Railroad, a U.S. Steel subsidiary, it was heavily used as a connection between the company's blast furnaces in Duquesne and its pipe mills in McKeesport.
Linda McKenna Boxx, president of the Regional Trail Corporation, speaks Thursday with the bridge in the background.
In celebration of Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary and to mark the connection of the bridge to the trail network, a 24-hour relay race will be held this weekend. Eighteen teams of six cyclists each will depart Washington, D.C., on Friday carrying a proclamation from the U.S. Congress and deliver it to Pittsburgh --- 335 miles away --- the following day.
The racers are scheduled to pass through the city on Saturday morning.
All bicyclers are invited to join a final "community ride" from McKeesport to Point State Park on Oct. 4. Visit bike250.org for more information.
(All photos © 2008 John Barna, special to The Almanac.)
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