Urban legends of Pittsburgh? (Oakdale, Heidelberg: how much, home, layoffs)

[Tinare]

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

There's also an urban legend that there's an unfortunate construction worker entombed in the concrete of the Westinghouse bridge. Can anybody verify that one?

I heard that one too. The legend I heard was that a worker fell while they were pouring the concrete and was incased. I did a quick google and found this, so it seems that someone did die during construction, but I'm sure that it just turned into a story that he was actually made part of the bridge...

George Westinghouse Memorial Bridge 1932 - HAER PA-446 - Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, PA

"One notable aspect of the George Westinghouse Bridge's history is its popularity as a site to commit suicide. By early 1983, many people had ended their lives by leaping more tham 200 feet to the valley below. [44] There also have been a number of accidents in which people have fallen from the bridge. The bridge's first casualty was a construction worker who tumbled from a beam in December 1931. One of the most spectacular events on the bridge was the July 1954 rescue of two children who had climbed one of the arches."

[Tallysmom]

UFO crash landing in Kecksburg... claims from many to have seen it and the military clean up...

[hapaleeretired]

I grew up in Glenwillard PA. In the early sixties they got excited think they found the famous B-25. It was just the frame of an old car. They dumped it alongside the river near the dam.
It was alleged that the "green man" was electrocuted thus causing his discoloration. I knew people who claimed to have met him and said he was a very nice guy. I have doubts about their having met him.
The couple who were parking, had a fight and stormed away only to find a "HOOK" hanging on the passenger door was a very popular myth when I was a kid.

[slamont61]

I've always loved that story. I hope to hear of a conclusion. It's no mystery that any aluminum in the Mon of the 50's would have eaten it very quickly. It's a different animal now days. I've even swam in it. Thank God the rivers make a recovery after the Steel Industry became all but obsolete.

I really enjoy looking at the old pictures of Pittsburgh Past, like Bridges and Buildings that are no longer there. Icons like the "Have a Duke" clock in the south side on the old Brewery, the blinking of PITTSBURGH in morse code atop the Grant Building. The way the Gulf tower used to forcast the weather. Just looking for any remaining evidence of the signs and bill boards that lined MT Washington, let alone the several other Inclines that ran in the City. Scenes of the warf with old cars and a slope down to the rivers edge, not a concrete wall like there is now. Anyone ever watch the Westinghouse sign that wouldn't repete the same lighting pattern in decades?

There is NO OTHER activity I enjoyed more than simply standing along the Overlooks on Grandview Avenue, and just soaking up the view. I lived for four years on Mt Washington with that very view and it NEVER got old. The noise, the smell and the Billion Dollar view. Life was never better.

[juliegt]

Originally Posted by gimbler

there's the one about pittsburgh being "the most livable city".

lmao!

[Copanut]

This was nationwide but I was told it happened at the Greentree Holiday Inn. A guy picked up a chick at a bar, took her home for a fling, when he woke up she was gone but left a lipstick message on the bathroom mirror: Welcome to the AIDs generation.

[ExPit]

I guess an Urban Legend by definition means the story is not true, right? So I don't know if this would qualify or not on that basis, but has anybody ever heard of a city cop name Mason who worked the Hill in the 60's and 70's. I remember hearing about this guy, there was real fear of this supposedly trigger happy cop who and this could be the 'Legend', killed his own son when he responded to an armed robbery in progress call ... Fact or fiction, anybody know?

[slamont61]

Originally Posted by Tinare

I heard that one too. The legend I heard was that a worker fell while they were pouring the concrete and was incased. I did a quick google and found this, so it seems that someone did die during construction, but I'm sure that it just turned into a story that he was actually made part of the bridge...

George Westinghouse Memorial Bridge 1932 - HAER PA-446 - Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, PA

"One notable aspect of the George Westinghouse Bridge's history is its popularity as a site to commit suicide. By early 1983, many people had ended their lives by leaping more tham 200 feet to the valley below. [44] There also have been a number of accidents in which people have fallen from the bridge. The bridge's first casualty was a construction worker who tumbled from a beam in December 1931. One of the most spectacular events on the bridge was the July 1954 rescue of two children who had climbed one of the arches."

Oh crap! I can't get away from this site. Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh is something else.

There once was a bridge in the western south hills that was a fortyfive degree angle. It was old and rickety but was in operation back in 1980. I'm quite sure it's gone now, I'm just trying to figure out where it was. Somewhere near Heidelberg I believe.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by ExPit

I guess an Urban Legend by definition means the story is not true, right? So I don't know if this would qualify or not on that basis, but has anybody ever heard of a city cop name Mason who worked the Hill in the 60's and 70's. I remember hearing about this guy, there was real fear of this supposedly trigger happy cop who and this could be the 'Legend', killed his own son when he responded to an armed robbery in progress call ... Fact or fiction, anybody know?

I got one of those, too! My parents told one about the old (now defunct) Cranberry Hall restaurant. It was obviously a large house that had been converted into a restaurant -- it was on Rt 19, about where the WalMart is today. I'd say from the style it was built somewhere in the mid 40's. It was WILDLY popular -- people would come from everywhere to eat at this place -- and my parents would not go there.

My parents claimed the owner of the house had his wife killed by two guys. They must have bungled it, or got caught doing something else, because they ratted out the husband as soon as they could. He was arrested, tried and executed...

I begged my Dad to take me there, and finally he said yes -- and the food wasn't all that good -- but I could tell he was just unnerved by the place.

I've never been able to find anything out about the house or the owners....

[Mongohateswinter]

The GREEN MAN lives & roams in South Park, just like Susquatch ( only without all the fur )... If he didn't, why would they have named the old railroad tunnel "THE GREEN MAN TUNNEL " ???...I grew up about 1/2 mile from the famous site & can remember all the carloads of kids showing up at night all summer long, hoping to get a glimpse of the GREEN MAN....It's also the place where all the rival High Schools went to settle any differences....Another one is " 13 BENDS "...The long winding road was made up of 13 bends where people have been beaten, murdered, raped & just vanished... Another one is "Chief Bullseye " who had become friends with many of the local settlers in the 1700's... Seems a few of the newer settlers didn't want to be friends with a redskin & one night when the Chief wasn't around, snuck up on his lodge, slaughtered his entire family, & burned their bodies on stakes... As the story goes, when he came back & found them, he went crazy & went on the war path, terrorizing & killing everyone he came upon... and to this day, his spirit supposedly lives on, roaming the Western Pa. woods & occasionally appearing to the living - weeping like a baby over his murdered family....
Boo !