The Savvy Yinzer’s Guide To: City Steps
What do you know about Pittsburgh's infamous stairs?
PHOTO BY HUCK BEARD
Pittsburgh is famous for its bridges — 446 of them, a fact we mention at every opportunity (including funerals).
Less celebrated but equally astonishing is what connects the bridges to the neighborhoods above them: our city steps. Approximately 1,200 sets of public staircases, totaling some 51,800 individual steps and stretching 30 miles in length, climb hills in every direction.
San Francisco has its trolleys. Venice has its canals. Pittsburgh has its steps, and we have thoughts …
18TH STREET STEPS PHOTO BY LEE ANN DRAUD
Who’s Responsible?
More than a third of our city steps — 460 sets — are built on engineered structures, making them, by the city’s own definition, comparable to small bridge projects. Responsibility for the inspection and maintenance of these public city steps falls under the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) in cooperation with the Department of Public Works (DPW).
Domo arigato, DOMI!
Say What?
Not all Pittsburgh steps are structural. Some are cut directly into the sidewalk, and the city calls these jumperwalks. Yes, that is the official municipal term. Jumperwalk. Someone in city government actually sat down and invented this word, and we have been using it ever since without question or apology.
Jumperwalk. You’re welcome.
Ready to Redd Up?
We take step stewardship seriously enough to have organized a volunteer army of staircase enthusiasts. You can apply to organize a neighborhood
step-cleaning workday, and DPW will provide gloves, bags and trash pickup.
Other cities have block parties. We redd up the steps.
How Can You Find City Steps?
There’s an official online map of all 1,200 sets of public steps, and it is a sight to behold. This map exists because here in Pittsburgh, staircases are considered pedestrian infrastructure, managed like roads and bridges.
We have strong feelings about our steps — and this map proves it.
How High?
Pittsburgh’s 51,800 individual steps, stacked vertically at eight inches per step, would exceed the height of Mount Everest.
Nobody has done this. Nobody should. But the fact that our city steps represent a mountaineering achievement hiding inside a mid-sized Pennsylvania city is exactly the kind of thing a savvy yinzer should know.
