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Junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, circa 1890.
Credit: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania State Archives
The Pennsylvania steel and soft coal industries were inextricably interrelated and interdependent. Pittsburgh's steel mills and other industries ran on coal, which was barged and freighted into Pittsburgh and other mill towns in huge volumes. The use of coal as fuel also filled the acrid smoke that damaged plant life over hundreds of square miles.