From how far away can you see the Pittsburgh skyline? (Washington: restaurant, bike)

[bjagd02]

Has anyone been able to see it north of the city other than skydiving ?

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by bjagd02

Has anyone been able to see it north of the city other than skydiving ?

Just saw it on the local news and I'm north of the city.

[Lock-Os]

You can see downtown from Rossi's Flea Market in North Versailles and that's about as far out as I have seen it. I do remember seeing the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland from my house in Shaler growing up, but that isn't much of a stretch.

[Proud Pittsburgher]

New Kensington: peak of Beamer Avenue on down to the intersection of Beamer and Lincoln heading toward PA 780 away from Seventh Street Ext.

[Salmonburgher]

Originally Posted by youngabe

Awesome pictures, jmd41280!

The skyline can be seen on a small bridge which carries White Cloud Road over Route 56 (Leechburg Road) in Allegheny Township a few miles before where Lower Burrell officially starts. Growing up, my friends always used to say you can see the skyline, but I never believed them. I always thought maybe they were just seeing New Kensington off in the distance. Sure enough, you can make out the Pittsburgh skyline in the right conditions.

Cool! I'll have to take a ride out there when I am home in a few weeks.

I always look forward to seeing Pittsburgh from the air when I fly in to the airport on my visits. My last visit in June had me arriving at night and we circled from the south over Oakland and the North Side, and it was a clear night and Pittsburgh was absolutely gorgeous, all lit up and sparkling.

Originally Posted by Proud Pittsburgher

New Kensington: peak of Beamer Avenue on down to the intersection of Beamer and Lincoln heading toward PA 780 away from Seventh Street Ext.

Have to take a look from there, too! Thanks for the tip!

[Johnny C]

I was at the point recently and had a pretty good view of the skyline.

[pwiegman]

This post highlights the geology of the Pittsburgh Region.

We live of an elevated plateau aptly called the Pittsburgh Plateau. This region is bounded by the Allegheny Mountains to the south east, the Glaciated Plateau to the north, and extends west into eastern Ohio. At one time the region was a broad flat plain with rivers meandering across the expanse.

It's a complicated process but geologic changes began the the region started to rise. As the land rose the creeks, streams, and rivers were rejuvenated and began to erode into the flat lands. The land rose, the rivers cut deeper valleys, and over long periods of time the present landscape was formed.

That landscape is essentially still a flat plain, the Pittsburgh Plateau, with a lot of valleys cut into the surface. If you look from Mt. Washington or any other high point around Pittsburgh notice that the horizon is essentially flat. That the flatness of the old plateau. There are a few bumps and higher rises but the former plateau predominates.

The geology is different to the east. The Allegheny Mts, including Chestnut Ridge, Laurel Ridge, Negro Mt., and Allegheny Mt. are old folded mountains. They have gone through the same uplift of the plateau but because of of a layer of hard, difficult to erode, sandstone the underlying waves of folded rock have been exposed. These, the Laurel Highlands, are the true mountains of western PA.

Thus the most distant views of the Pittsburgh skyline are from the elevated locations of Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Ridge looking out across the Pittsburgh Plateau.

Laurel Caverns is on Chestnut Ridge as is the view of the skyline from Rt. 31 near Acme, PA. However the most distant view is probably from the Seven Springs location since that is on Laurel Ridge and you have additional elevation because of being on the lift tower. The most distant view without additional elevation is probably somewhere along the Laurel Highland Hiking Trail on one of the rock outcrops that line the top of the ridge. The Middle Creek overlook between Seven Springs and Rt 653 may be the most distant view.

pgw

[alastad]

Originally Posted by jmd41280

I'm not sure if this topic has been covered before, but please feel free to post far away vantage points from which the Pittsburgh skyline can be spotted (and photographic proof if you have it).

The furthest I have seen the skyline (or at least the US Steel Tower) is from Laurel Caverns in Fayette County, about 47 miles away as the crow flies...

Pittsburgh from Laurel Caverns by jmd41280, on Flickr

I have also seen it from Chestnut Ridge above Uniontown. This shot was taken from Skyline Drive, just above the Summit Inn. This is about 45 miles away...

Pittsburgh from 45 miles away by jmd41280, on Flickr

The skyline can also be spotted from the summit of Three Mile Hill (Route 31) above Mt. Pleasant, about 36 miles away...

Pittsburgh skyline from Three Mile Hill - Acme, PA by jmd41280, on Flickr

The US Steel Tower and BNY Mellon Tower can be spotted from the Scenery Hill Cemetery in Scenery Hill (Washington County), about 25 miles away...

Distant View of Pittsburgh by jmd41280, on Flickr

Holly crap! Lol. How is that even possible?

[wanderlust76]

I have seen it from the Laurel Caverns spot I believe it's called Pine Knob and as pwiegman said the actual mountain that Laurel Caverns juts into is called Chestnut Ridge. It is not the most difficult hike in the world but I don't think it can be considered easy either. I believe they say you can see all 3 states from there. I never knew about the Seven Springs spot however I would say that spot and the aforementioned Chestnut Ridge spot just about have to be the 2 farthest.

[pwiegman]

Originally Posted by wanderlust76

I believe they say you can see all 3 states from there. .

I'm curious as to the 3 states. PA and WVA are obvious. The only other would be Ohio and that's really pushing it given the terrain and the curvature of the globe.

pgw