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reduced from 4.8 per cent to 4.6 per cent. While these proposed gradients are undesirably heavy, it is believed that they would not in themselves offer a very serious obstacle to the advance of firstclass business into the Hump District if for other reasons the growth should tend in that direction. Further, for automobiles, electric cars and light horse-drawn carriages the proposed gradients, while objectionable, are not, in view of the topography of Pittsburgh, very excessive. Such gradients, however, are prohibitive to economical teaming. They will be avoided by teamsters at the expense of a long detour if they can find a route of low gradient, and if there is no such route they mean the hauling of smaller loads, the making of more trips to do the same work, and a very appreciable tax upon the public, paid in the cost of coal, building material, household supplies, etc.

Almost at first sight there appear two important lines of travel which might naturally be expected to pass through the Hump District, and which would be seriously affected by gradients as heavy as those remaining under the Bureau of Surveys' plan. One is that leading from the Point District and from practically all the freight yards into the valley occupied by Fifth Avenue and Forbes Street. A second line which may be expected to have great importance is one connecting Second Avenue east of Try Street with Liberty and Penn Avenues in the vicinity of the Union Station -- in other words, the most easterly line upon which a connection of easy gradient can be secured between the two valleys. The improvement of Forbes Street as the main artery of a large east-bound thoroughfare system, the location of the traffic artery to the South Hills region -- the high-level bridge and tunnel -- and the location of the proposed Municipal Building and Civic Center, which are all recommended in Parts I and II of this report, must inevitably add greatly to the importance of this region behind the Hump as a distributing point for traffic. Sixth Avenue, especially the diagonal portion, Fifth Avenue and Diamond Street are the thoroughfare lines to this point. Considered together with other improvements of the down town district, Diamond Street becomes perhaps the most important line over the Hump. From the point of view of the city as a whole, any plan for cutting the Hump which does not secure reasonable gradients on these thoroughfares must be regarded as ineffective.

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Last modified on 22-Dec 1999
Design format: copyright 1997-1999 Bruce S. Cridlebaugh
Original document: Frederick Law Olmsted, 1910