Pittsburgh, with its “Golden Triangle” perched at the confluence of
the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers has been immensely
important to the development of the United States since the city was
first founded in 1758. I’m not just saying this because the
Pittsburgh area is my home – Pittsburgh and its surrounding area has
found favor with the likes of President George Washington, President
James Monroe, President William Taft and the Marquis de Lafayette.
Additionally, distinguished individuals such as Gen. Alfred L.
Pearson, industrialist George Westinghouse, composer Stephen Foster,
industrialist Andrew Carnegie, artist Andy Warhol, Judge and
financier Thomas Mellon and actor Frank Gorshin – to name a few –
have all called Pittsburgh home.
A mammoth of the industrial revolution Pittsburgh was the epitome of
progress in the industrial age. Once called “hell with the lid off”
due to all of the fire and smoke generated by her steel works,
railroad companies, glass factories, coal and oil production and
other industrial businesses Pittsburgh showcased the pinnacle of all
manner of modern industrialism in her cultural melting pot. At the
time, smoke was considered to be a sign of growth, modernism and
progress. More recently however, the city has undergone a revolution
to become a rising star in the technology, cinematographic and arts
sectors which support its already established reputation as a giant
in the educational, financial, medical and sports fields.
Here, though, we will be examining an area within a section of the
city of Pittsburgh called Lawrenceville – a place where several
notables including Stephen Foster and Frank Gorshin were born.
Lawrenceville was also a place that was home to the Allegheny
Arsenal – an important piece in the Federal victory in the American
Civil War.
The year is 1857 and the skies of industrial Pittsburgh wear a black
gauze of coal smoke from iron foundries, glass factories and other
industry. Major John Symington has been appointed to the command
post at the Allegheny Arsenal facility on June 1 of that year. In
1860, three short years after Symington’s appointment, the Allegheny
Arsenal had established an enviable record as one of the principal
arsenals in America. Below, in a letter dated June 30, 1860, Major
Symington details some of the work taking place at the Allegheny
Arsenal:
An addition to the new shops, 49 ½ by 48 feet, two stories high,
with heavy stone cornice, and roof covered with zinc, built and
supplied with 415 lineal feet, of seven inches diameter, thick
sheet-iron pipe for heating it with steam. The lower story fitted up
with machinery for wood-work operations, and the upper with offices,
benches, closets, etc., suitable for a workshop for accoutrement and
harness makers; and also a steam-heated chamber lined with
sheet-iron and zinc, with iron frames to hold iron racks on rollers
for drying and varnishing accoutrements.
A new stable seventy-five by thirty-five feet, with two projecting
pediments, two stories and basement, of which only the basement was
erected at last resort completed and supplied with lightning
conductors.
The new magazine plastered, floors laid and completed and lightning
conductors attached.
The building in the upper park has been plastered, painted and
finished.
The old smithy armory and machine shops cleaned up, altered and
repaired, to adapt them for storehouses; and ninety-four 32 and
24-pounder barbette carriages have been properly piled and arranged
in them.
The wall and fence on the riverfront of arsenal grounds finished.
2,790 lineal feet of gutters, sewers, and roads constructed. 6 Cess-pools
dug and walled up. 1 Hydrant made and put up. Perches of stone
enclosing wall, rebuilt, and 100 feet of stone coping laid.
Just over two years after the issue of the above letter the fortunes
of the Allegheny Arsenal would be forever changed as it was destined
to become the site of the worst industrial accident of the American
Civil War. At the time, the Allegheny Arsenal employed 186 civilians
– 156 of which were women and young girls – to manufacture hardware,
weaponry and munitions – primarily .54 and .71 caliber musket
cartridges and 10 and 12 pound cannon shells for the Federal
government. The great proportions of women and young girls working
in the arsenal is attributed by many to the obvious fact that in
wartime a large proportion of men had withdrawn from their civilian
work in order to serve in the military, but, what many fail to
realize is that before the widespread use of the metallic cartridge
women and young girls were highly sought after in munitions work
because their petite and dexterous hands were more skilled at
folding the paper cylinders that enclosed the powder and ball in
cartridge type musket shot.
Additionally, many individuals who are historically inclined may
recognize the date of September 17, 1862 as the bloodiest day of
fighting in American history where over 5,000 soldiers, both Union
and Confederate, died on the battlefields of Antietam, Maryland.
What many do not realize is that on that same day, 185 miles to the
northwest, the worst industrial tragedy of the American Civil War
was unfolding at the Allegheny Arsenal. September 17 was payday at
the arsenal and the workers would report to the paymaster in teams
throughout the day – for the workers in Room 14, who reported to the
paymaster at about 2 p.m., it would also prove to be a stroke of
luck that would ultimately save their lives.
At around 2 p.m. in Building 1, the main building in the arsenal
complex, a blast erupted. Not long after, a second explosion rocked
Building 1 followed by a third in Building 2. When the debris had
settled the “official” report concluded that 78 of the workers at
the arsenal had been killed – most of which were burned or mangled
beyond recognition, and, in all probability some bodies may not have
been recovered at all. Of the recovered dead 72 were women or
teenage girls and 6 were men or teenage boys. In hindsight it was
believed that the most likely scenario that caused the explosions
was that a lamp used to keep wax hot for the sealing and
waterproofing of the musket cartridges sparked and ignited some of
the gunpowder that was spilled on the floor.
In the aftermath of the explosions Major Symington was stripped of
his post for negligence and the dead were interred at nearby
Allegheny Cemetery where a memorial in their honor was erected with
a plaque that reads:
Tread softly, this is consecrated dust
Forty five pure patriotic victims lie here
A sacrifice to freedom and liberty,
A horrid memento of a most wicked rebellion
Patriots! These are patriots’ graves
Friends of humble, honest toil
These were your peers.
Fervent affection kindled these hearts
Honest industry employed these hands
Widows’ and orphans’ tears have watered the ground
Female beauty and manhood’s vigor commingle here
Identified by man, known by Him who is the resurrection and the life
To be made known and loved again when the morning cometh.
On April 30, 1930 – 67 years after the munitions explosions at
Allegheny Arsenal – the last survivor of the blasts was laid to
rest, thus closing the chapter on the single bloodiest day in
American history…but…another secret laid in wait under the Arsenal,
one whose purpose is still not fully known to this day.
The stories about the Arsenal Tunnels seem to have been an urban
myth for decades, but behind a chained and locked rusty grate there
is a small passageway to an underground labyrinth right under the
very streets of Lawrenceville. According to popular legend often
passed around by kids in the neighborhood the tunnels ran parallel
to 40th street and were supposed to be a part of the former
Allegheny Arsenal complex, but, often times the speculation of their
origins as well as their beginning and ending points of the tunnels
were as varied as the storytellers themselves.
The entrance to the tunnels, found underneath the 40th street Bridge
in the Allegheny County Maintenance Department Complex is barred
with a heavy steel grate, chained and locked to prevent trespassing
– which is ill advised in any circumstance – no matter how
interesting a place may seem. From the nondescript exterior one may
simply think that the entrance leads to an old storage room no
longer in use or something of that nature, but, looks can be
deceiving.
An urban exploration team was granted permission by the county to go
into the tunnels and report their findings. Once through the small
3’ x 3’ crawlspace at the entrance of the tunnels what the team
found was, in a word, unbelievable. Although they did not find
relics from the past, a part of the Underground Railroad or anything
like that what they did find was a network of well built, well
preserved chambers, antechambers and tertiary chambers connected by
a network of wide “hallways.”
Many of the chambers measure 10’ wide by 10’ in length with a
ceiling that measures 12’ tall. There are no electrical conduits or
conductors in the chambers but there are numerous pipes that enter
and exit the chambers, however there is no evidence providing any
logic to the function of the pipes – which, in all likelihood, are
water, gas and steam pipes that service Arsenal Terminal and the
Lawrenceville community. It appeared to the exploration team that
the construction of the underground complex was more closely dated
to that of the 40th street Bridge rather than to the Allegheny
Arsenal.
The entire complex was built from poured concrete and occasionally
the thick covering of dust that matted the floor gave way to reveal
a floor made of brick. As a sidebar, one suggestion about the
brickwork “floor” is that this was once the sidewalk that bordered
40th street. Historical references reveal that in the 1920’s, while
the 40th Street Bridge was under construction the existing street
and sidewalks were overlaid with massive amounts of dirt to make
allowances for higher elevations at grade so that the bridge would
be at a relatively even elevation on both ends.
Although the complex of chambers the exploration team investigated
seemed to date from around the 1920’s about half way through the
cursory exploration of the chambers the team came across a chamber
where the floor had partially collapsed. The area where the floor
collapsed revealed another tunnel underneath – built of brick, about
4’ wide and 5 ½’ tall with an arched ceiling. This tunnel is
believed to far predate the chamber complex above it and was
probably a part of the original Arsenal complex. The purposes of the
chambers and that of the tunnel that runs beneath them is unknown at
this time, perhaps a future investigation will reveal more about
this enigmatic piece of local history that had a national impact.
Resources used in the writing of this article include:
http://www.lhs15201.org/
http://www.lhs15201.org/articles_b.asp?ID=13
http://www.lhs15201.org/articles_b.asp?ID=10
http://www.clpgh.org/research/pittsburgh/history/
http://www.visitpittsburgh.com
