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The Steps of Pittsburgh: Portrait of a City
One city, 712 sets of steps, 44,645 treads, 24,108 vertical feet. Sort of like climbing Mt. Everest. With Photos by Tim Fabian. Many of Pittsburgh's steps are legal streets, and all of them reflect the city's unique topography and history. Together, these 712 sets of steps provide a vital link in the city's transportation system as well as unusual challenges for pedestrians, joggers, the bike police, and especially pizza delivery. Whether you intend to climb, scamper or crawl them, Pittsburgh's public steps are a unique feature in this topographically challenging city. Author Bob Regan and photographer Tim Fabian have captured their history, use, charm and care in this well documented and wonderfully photographed book sure to enchant locals and visitors alike. The book includes several easy-to-follow walking tours, making it a handy field guide as well. Includes 100 photos, maps, illustrations, and survey tables.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
142 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2004
80 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 2, 2025
Excellent and much-needed cataloguing and description of Pittsburgh's city steps. Includes some history, many photos, ans several walking tours.
April 11, 2008
Some of Pittsburgh's streets are only steps. The system developed because of the steep hills all over Pittsburgh... my great-grandfather on visiting my grandfather for the first time there, said you couldn't stand a cow on those hills.
The mills were down in the flats along the rivers and the workers lived in the nearest hills to the flats like in the South Side where my grandmother grew up. The Indian Trail steps used to go up Mt. Washington and spanned more than 700 steps. Now the longest set in the city is just under 400. To think of mill workers putting in 12 hour shifts and then walking back up such expanses of steps is amazing. And, to think that a city mostly got itself around by walking is even more so these days. It was funny reading that people who lived in the city could tell when someone was a "hill-dweller" by the bounce in their step.
The mills were down in the flats along the rivers and the workers lived in the nearest hills to the flats like in the South Side where my grandmother grew up. The Indian Trail steps used to go up Mt. Washington and spanned more than 700 steps. Now the longest set in the city is just under 400. To think of mill workers putting in 12 hour shifts and then walking back up such expanses of steps is amazing. And, to think that a city mostly got itself around by walking is even more so these days. It was funny reading that people who lived in the city could tell when someone was a "hill-dweller" by the bounce in their step.
May 10, 2011
This really is a portrait of Pittsburgh. I wish the city promoted the steps as a tourist attraction more, because there truly are some awesome views from atop certain staircases. Aside from the fact that Pittsburgh has more steps than any other city in the world (same with bridges)! The only thing this book needs is a fold-out map that shows exact locations of each staircase. It has a small map that fits on one page and shows where they are all, but it's so small as to be unusable for anything other than a general picture.
November 21, 2016
A fantastic book for a little bit of history, but mostly my 5-star rating comes from the maps for the walking tours. I did each one and they all come with a lot of happy surprises, like a mysterious dirt path through a park or grassy clearing. Lovely way to enjoy a slow morning. It's an older book, and some of the stairs are closed by now (ie: in the Lawrenceville tour, one of the long ones has large missing sections and is fenced off as closed). A wonderful, easy way to experience and learn about a part of Pittsburgh history.
March 17, 2009
Yeah Pittsburgh. The steps look glorious in these photos. The author was a visiting Pitts Profess who rode around to all the streets and documented where all the steps were. I found out that Pittsburgh has 90 neighborhoods. I am going to visit some I have never been to and do the Larryville walking tour. There are lots of maps and some historical photos that are kind of insane. But most people used to walk to work and they lived in the hills and worked on the flats. So it goes.
April 23, 2009
I've walked some of these steps and I intend to walk a lot more.
September 1, 2009
A great little book about a semi-obscure feature of the city. My favorite part is the bit about how bike cops are trained to ride down the steps, if needed.
March 29, 2012
cool topic, excellent research, but not very well written.
October 2, 2012
A quick and charming read that really captures one of the charms of Pittsburgh. The black and white photography is gorgeous, and would’ve been even better in a larger edition than the one I read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews