Overlooking downtown Pittsburgh from atop Mount Washington today, it seems inconceivable that the city was once blighted with pollution, the black smoke of coal fires blotting out the sun and its three rivers toxic with waste.
In 1868, writer James Parton called Pittsburgh “hell with the lid taken off,” a condition that endured until the 1950’s. After its steel economy finally collapsed in the mid-1980’s, it was do-or-die time for the industrial powerhouse. Along with investments in knowledge, education, technology, sports and cultural tourism, the city's focus on environmental recovery has made Pittsburgh one of the world's greenest cities.
Popularly known as “The Green Heart of Pittsburgh,” the circa-1893 Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is at the forefront of global green development. Already boasting the first LEED-certified welcome center in a public garden and the world’s most energy-efficient conservatory, the Phipps is also home to the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, a completely self-sustaining building that is among the greenest structures on Earth. 
For a riveting encounter with Pittsburgh's industrial past, visit the remarkable Carrie Furnaces National Historic Site in nearby Braddock, Pa. Here, men who once prepared the molten iron that made the steel that built America provide guided tours of the innards of these blast furnace complex, formerly the heart of U.S. Steel's Homestead Works. 
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