(
Satellite, the island in the Allegheny River)
The island contained stockyards and slaughterhouses, then warehouses and now residential units, offices & parks. It was renamed Washington's Landing when it was cleaned up in the 1990s for residential use and when the
30th Street Bridge was built for easy access.
Note that it also has an extensive marina.
Rather than do a Google search, I'm going to recognize that
pghbridges has written a better history than I would write.
The island was settled by Benjamin Herr who operated a water powered mill in the back channel. Federal regulations required that livestock being transported by railroad must be given rest stops. Stockyards were constructed on Herr's Island. Over time, the stockyards were expanded; slaughterhouses and processing factories covered the island.
Later the stockyards were closed and replaced by warehouses. Sculling teams from local universities discovered the still waters of the back channel and used this area for training. Herr's Island was rechristened Washington's Landing by the City of Pittsburgh as part of the clean-up and rehabilitation of the former industrial brownfield site. A new 30th Street bridge was built for reliable access by vehicles.
With the raised environmental consciousness of the early 1990s, Herr's Island was rediscovered, cleared and cleaned as part of a residential and recreational development which includes a marina, recreational trails and riverside park areas.
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| 1951/51 Pittsburgh East Quad @ 24,000 |
The oldest topo map that I could find more accurately depicts the stockyard pens.
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| 1904/04 Mc Keesport Quad @ 62,600 |
Actually, it looks like the island had been converted from stockyards to warehouses before the 1951 topo map was made.
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| Dave Kunt commented on his post |
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