Free Summer Series – Point State Park
This summer, we vowed to spend more time outside. We want to walk and get a little bit of a base tan so that when we go on a two week camping trip, we aren’t tired the whole trip. We also wanted to spend a little more time as a family. Every week, we will be posting new, fun things to do on your days off that don’t cost anything!
I’ve lived in Pittsburgh my entire lifeand we never had a chance to go to the Point. The Point is the park built where Pittsburgh’s three rivers meet. The Allegheny river and the Monongahela river merge to form the Ohio river. The Monongahela river is one of the only rivers in the world that flows north. Historically, it is where both the French and the English built forts to defend early Pittsburgh.
The Point is not always the easiest place to go due to parking. Several parking lots are close, but you have to pay for all of them. There is free parking on the city streets on Sundays and after 6:00 P.M. every other day. There are several things to do at the park. All the really cool shots of Pittsburgh include the fountain at the Point, so it’s a great photo opp. The day we went, there were boats parked all around the point. It’s easy to dip your toes in the river. You can see the stadiums, the incline and the Science Center. The smell of the chlorine out of the fountain is permeating. There are very few vendors or guided tours that originate within the park. We did see a pack of segways roll through.
Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt both originally had their homes within Point State Park. Some Saturdays the reenactors from the Fort Pitt Museum shoot the museum’s cannon on their lawn.
If you have a few bucks to spend, you can go into the Fort Pitt Museum and learn a lot about the British fort from the 1750’s. If not, you can walk the outline of Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt. There is some information scattered around the park so you can learn a little more about the things you’re seeing. The original outline of the forts has been traced in concrete in the ground. 
They were both pentagram shaped forts. Fort Duquesne’s barracks seemed small for a bedroom for multiple people. The block house is the only remaining structure from the forts. It is open daily and free to the public. You can imagine yourself shooting black powder rifles out of the tiny slits.
Fort Duquesne was the smaller of the two forts. It was built by the French. Later, Fort Pitt was built by the English. It survived sieges by Native Americans, the French and Indian War, and the Revolutionary War. Fort Pitt has a much larger footprint. It is easier to see a bit of what Fort Pitt may have looked like since the museum is built where one of the spokes of the pentagram would have stood.
We spent about three hours just walking around, taking pictures, reading about the history, and watching some other people take some beautiful wedding pictures. Be sure to take some water. There are a few water fountains around where you can refill.
