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March 21, 2014 / Pittsburgh n'at

Pittsburgh from the air

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March 10, 1983: View of Pittsburgh from the top of the U.S. Steel building. (Pittsburgh Press photo)
March 10, 1983: View of Pittsburgh from the top of the U.S. Steel building. (Pittsburgh Press photo)
Aug. 9, 1972: View of Pittsburgh and the Hill District neighborhood, including the Civic Arena. (Stewart Love/The Pittsburgh Press)
Aug. 9, 1972: View of Pittsburgh and the Hill District neighborhood, including the Civic Arena. (Stewart Love/The Pittsburgh Press)
Aug. 9, 1972: View of Downtown Pittsburgh and the Golden Triangle. (Stewart Love/The Pittsburgh Press)
Aug. 9, 1972: View of Downtown Pittsburgh and the Golden Triangle. (Stewart Love/The Pittsburgh Press)
November 1983: A view of the Pittsburgh skyline at dawn -- not an aerial, but we wanted to include it just the same. (Donald J. Stetzer/The Pittsburgh Press)
November 1983: A view of the Pittsburgh skyline at dawn — not an aerial, but we wanted to include it just the same. (Donald J. Stetzer/The Pittsburgh Press)
Aug. 9, 1972: The edge of Downtown Pittsburgh and Point State Park. (Dale Gleason/Pittsburgh Press)
Aug. 9, 1972: The edge of Downtown Pittsburgh and Point State Park. (Dale Gleason/Pittsburgh Press)
Aug. 9, 1972: Three Rivers Stadium, less than two months before Roberto Clemente earned his 3000th hit there. (Stewart Love/The Pittsburgh Press)
Aug. 9, 1972: Three Rivers Stadium, less than two months before Roberto Clemente earned his 3000th hit there. (Stewart Love/The Pittsburgh Press)
Feb. 9, 1969: A view of Pittsburgh from Duquesne University and its Administration Building. (Pittsburgh Press photo)
Feb. 9, 1969: A view of Pittsburgh from Duquesne University and its Administration Building. (Pittsburgh Press photo)

Pittsburgh’s skyline is one of the most photogenic in the country. Day or night, images of the Golden Triangle’s towers bordered by the city’s rivers are striking.

Even before the current set of skyscrapers went up, photographers loved taking images of Pittsburgh from the air. For many of them,  Pittsburgh has always been about scale.

We recently found at least seven folders in the PG’s archive — from 1930 to the 2000s — packed full of beautiful images of Pittsburgh from elevated angles. We’re sharing some of the best ones here.

And over the next few months, we’ll add more to this series.

For now, enjoy this sequence of images that shows the city from high above. Many were taken by Pittsburgh Press photographer Stewart Love, who was an expert in capturing such angles.

The Pittsburgh Press claimed that Stewart Love was the newspaper’s “aerial” photographer. Love’s pictures were published in publications such as Life, Time, Look and Saturday Evening Post. He made history with his camera and friends with his personality. “Stu,” as Stewart Love was known among his friends, loved Pittsburgh.  Obviously, he was not the only one.

Andrew Carnegie said, “Pittsburgh entered the core of my heart when I was a boy and cannot be torn out.”

Wiz Khalifa echoed his statement a century later, “Just growing up in Pittsburgh and knowing different neighborhoods, having family there and just loving it, it’s like no other place.”

And Willie Stargell once said, “I would always reserve a special place in my heart for Pittsburgh.”

And so would we, and we hope, our readers would, too.

Do you love these photos? Purchase them on PG Store:

Pittsburgh aerial 1
Pittsburgh aerial 2
Pittsburgh aerial 3
Pittsburgh aerial 4
Pittsburgh aerial 5
Pittsburgh aerial 6
Pittsburgh aerial 7

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Topics related to this:"wow" photographs Civic Arena Duquesne University Photographer Dale Gleason Photographer Stewart Love Pittsburgh skyline Three Rivers Stadium

Ethan Magoc

Ethan worked to uncover Pittsburgh's history on The Digs for about two years. He can be reached at emagoc@gmail.com.

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