Fun Facts

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh is the first certified green convention center in the United States and the largest certified green building in the world.

In 1803, the Lewis & Clark expedition that explored the Louisiana Purchase  launched near what is today, the Mon Wharf and Liberty Bridge. The region's boat-building industry and location at the headwaters of the Ohio River made it the nation's first "Gateway to the West."

"Left Pittsburgh this day at 11 o'clock with a party of 11 hands 7 of which are soldiers, a pilot and three young men on trial they having proposed to go with me throughout the voyage." With those words, written on August 31, 1803, Meriwether Lewis began his first journal entry on the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1859, Edwin Drake drilled the world's first oil well in Titusville, Pa. Almost overnight, the quiet farming region boomed in much the same manner as the gold rush towns of the Wild West. Dozens of wells were drilled and towns sprang up around them literally overnight.

Early during the boom, Titusville pumped out 25 barrels a day, within the first year, some wells were producing as many as 3,000 barrels per day, a small number compared to the millions of barrels produced today.   Pennsylvania was actually responsible for almost half of the world's oil production until the 1901 oil boom in Texas.

In 1967, Pittsburgh native Jim Deligatti first sold the first Big Mac, a seven ingredient, double-decker sandwich, in his Uniontown store. It was designed to compete with the similar Big Boy, the flagship burger of the Big Boy restaurant chain. Customer response to the Big Mac was so good that it rolled-out nationally in 1968.

Today you can visit the birthplace of this iconic sandwich at the Big Mac Museum right outside of Pittsburgh.

The first injectable polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh.  In 1952, the vaccine was tested at Arsenal Elementary School and the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children in Pittsburgh. In 1954, Salk's vaccine was then used in a test called the Francis Field Trial, led by Thomas Francis; the largest medical experiment in history. On April 12, 1955, the results were announced; the vaccine was safe and effective.

Salk's vaccine was intrumental in the beginning the eradication of polio, a once widely-feared disease. Polio cases dropped 90% in the first two years of the vaccine's use.

 Pittsburgh has 445 bridges, more than any other city in the world except Venice, Italy.