Point State Park

About Point State Park

Point State Park at the tip of Pittsburgh is considered one of the most beautiful places in the United States, if not the world.

By the early 1950s, the area had turned into a slum, and today's Point State Park, with its beautiful views of the Allegheny River and the Pittsburgh skyline, has since been recognized as the park's national historic landmark.

The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet in Point State Park and form the Ohio River. During World War II, armies from France and Britain moved into the area, while both competed for control of the Ohio Valley.

The intensity of the conflict was illustrated by the Battle of Point State Park, the largest battle in US history. French troops captured the Virgin Force in 1754, which had built an outpost on the site.

George Washington was sent to retake the fortress from the Virgins, but suffered his first and only defeat at Fort Necessity, 50 miles southeast. The French then built Fort Duquesne at the fork that gave them control of the Ohio Valley until 1758.

The only threat to their control came in 1758, when General George Braddock marched at the Battle of Point State Park, west of Carlisle, and was defeated by a force of 1,000 Virgin Force soldiers.

When they realized that the French were in power in large numbers, they retreated and burned the fortress, but they were never to regain control, as their other outposts fell to the British. Fort Pitt was built on the same site that was supposed to be the largest British fortress in the American colonies. Forbes stopped at Fort Ligonier, 50 miles southeast, and made final preparations for an attack on Fort Duquesne.

The only other action at Fort Pitt was in 1763, when it withstood an attack by the Indians and the Pontiac Uprising, but was eventually abandoned in 1792. When Pittsburgh became the center of American history, it served as a border that opened the borders to settlement. The 36-acre park is located between I-376 and 279 and is located just a few miles north of Point State Park in the city of Pittsburgh.