THE POINT STATE PARK FOUNTAIN | PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO

1. Frank Lloyd Wright in 1947 conceived the idea of capping the confluence of the three rivers at Point State Park with a fountain as part of his grand visions for a futuristic civic center at the Point. His building plans never materialized, but the idea for the fountain did, and it started spraying water to celebrate the rebuilding of the 36-acre park in 1974.

2. Its geyser can reach up to 200 feet. When it opened, it was the tallest fountain in the United States, but that height has been eclipsed by others, including one in Fountain Hills, Arizona, which reaches 560 feet.

3. The fountain uses three pumps to cycle through 1.2 million gallons every hour.

4. The water was once supplied by a sand and gravel aquifer (popularly known as Pittsburgh’s fourth river) 55 feet below the park’s surface.

5. The fountain was turned off in April 2009 to undergo major renovations when its equipment started to fail from damage incurred during regular flooding. The nonprofit Riverlife raised $11.6 million to repair the pumps, add LED lighting, revamp the fountain plaza to be ADA-accessible and make other improvements. It was turned back on during the ​​“Riverlights at the Point” public celebration on June 7, 2013.