Fort Pitt Museum

Fort Pitt

The For Pitt Museum, along with the Bushy Run Battlefield site, provide a visual way to understand Pennsylvania's participation in the French and Indian War, other history of the area, and how the city of Pittsburgh was founded. The visual displays really bring the era to light. The model of Fort Pitt, which is over 15 feet wide, is remarkable and gives the visitor a real understanding of what the fort looked like. The displays and information gave lots of information not only about the American soldiers who manned the fort, but the other groups of people involved in its history including the French who joined with the Native Americans for the French and Indian War, and the use of the fort after the revolutionary war ended.

The museum also demonstrates the strategic importance of the location of Pittsburgh. Three rivers come together in Pittsburgh, and during colonial times, that made Fort Pitt an important site. Whoever held Fort Pitt had access to all three rivers. While most of the fort is now gone, Bouquet's Blockhouse remains. Built in 1764, it was designed to be a place soldiers or other people could retreat to during a battle for safety.