A) They led a brutal, months-long military siege that starved out the garrison.
B) They arrived to find the fort already burned and abandoned by the French.
C) George Washington led a successful midnight bayonet charge over the walls.
D) A Native American alliance betrayed the French and opened the fort gates.

B) They arrived to find the fort already burned and abandoned by the French. In November 1758, a massive British expedition led by General John Forbes (with Colonel George Washington commanding a regiment) marched on Fort Duquesne. Outnumbered, cut off from supplies, and losing the support of their Native American allies, the French evacuated. They burned the fort to the ground before the British arrived. General Forbes immediately claimed the smoking ruins, ordered the construction of a new, massive stronghold named Fort Pitt, and wrote a letter from the site dating it from “Pittsbourgh”—marking the official birth of the city’s name.

3. During the Revolutionary War, Fort Pitt served as the Western Headquarters for the Continental Army. In 1778, the first peace treaty between the newly formed United States and a Native American nation was signed here. Which nation was it?

A) The Iroquois
B) The Cherokee
C) The Delaware (Leni Lenape)
D) The Shawnee

C) The Delaware (Leni Lenape). The Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778) granted the U.S. permission to pass through Delaware territory and even proposed the revolutionary idea of a 14th state entirely managed by Native Americans, though the treaty was ultimately broken.

4. In July 1794, the Whiskey Rebellion reached a violent climax just south of Pittsburgh when hundreds of armed rebel farmers laid siege to and burned down the mansion of the regional tax collector. What was the name of this historic estate?

A) Oliver Miller Homestead
B) Bower Hill
C) Woodville Plantation
D) Compass Inn

B) Bower Hill. Bower Hill was the plantation home of General John Neville, a wealthy veteran of the Revolutionary War who accepted the position of regional tax supervisor. On July 16 and 17, 1794, local “Whiskey Boys” attacked the estate, resulting in a fierce gun battle and the death of rebel leader James McFarlane. The mansion was completely burned to the ground, an escalation that directly prompted President George Washington to march federal troops into Western Pennsylvania to restore order.

5. While waiting for a specialized keelboat to be made in Pittsburgh, Meriwether Lewis recruited his first crew members for his monumental American expedition with William Clark including a loveable Newfoundland dog. What was the dog’s name?

A) Scannon
B) Sailor
C) Seaman
D) Shannon

C) Seaman. Purchased in 1803 for a whopping $20 (Equivalent to $600 today), Seaman was the only non-human animal to complete the entire three-year trip. For nearly a century, historians mistakenly believed that Lewis’s dog was actually named Scannon until a 1984 study.

6. During the Great Pittsburgh Fire of 1845, the flames spread rapidly across the Monongahela Wharf, destroying a landmark wooden structure designed by the “Father of American Suspension Bridges,” John A. Roebling. Which historic crossing was lost to the fire?

A) The Smithfield Street Bridge
B) The Point Bridge
C) The Roberto Clemente Bridge
D) The Wabash Bridge

A) The Smithfield Street Bridge. The original structure at this location (then known as the Monongahela Bridge) was Pittsburgh’s very first river crossing. John A. Roebling had recently outfitted it with his revolutionary wire-suspension cables. When the fire tore through the city on April 10, 1845, the bridge’s wooden superstructure caught fire and collapsed into the river in less than fifteen minutes. Undeterred, Roebling was immediately hired to build an even stronger, fully suspension-based replacement on the same piers, which opened just a year later. The current bridge, designed by Gustav Linderthal, is actually the third bridge at that site, built in the 1880s.

7. What Pittsburgh manufacturing center was the site of deadliest civilian disaster of the Civil War?

A) Fort Pitt Foundry
B) Allegheny Arsenal
C) Cambria Iron Works
D) Lawrenceville Locomotive Works

B) Allegheny Arsenal. The Allegheny Arsenal was a crucial supplier for the Union Army until a tragic explosion on September 17, 1862, which killed 78 workers, mostly young women.

9. On November 15, 1881, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions was formed at Turner Hall in Pittsburgh. Five years later, this organization reorganized into what massive, historic federation of labor unions that shaped the American workforce?

A) The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
B) The Knights of Labor
C) The American Federation of Labor (AFL)
D) The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

C) The American Federation of Labor (AFL). Founded under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the AFL became one of the most powerful labor entities in the world, fighting for the eight-hour workday and safer conditions.

10. Born in Burrell Township in Armstrong County, this pioneering stunt journalist traveled around the world in 72 days and exposed the horrific conditions of New York insane asylums. Who was she?

A) Ida Tarbell
B) Nellie Bly
C) Jane Swisshelm
D) Winnie Blake

B) Nellie Bly. Born Elizabeth Cochrane, Bly was a trailblazer for investigative journalism and women in the newsroom, starting with her first writings under the pseudonym “Lonely Orphan Girl” for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Bly left Pittsburgh for New York, where she was hired by the New York World where she feigned insanity to investigate reports of neglect at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island.

11. The 1892 Homestead Strike near Pittsburgh remains one of the most significant and violent confrontations in American labor history. What major, long-lasting impact did the outcome of this conflict have on the United States workforce?

A) It led directly to the passage of the first federal laws establishing the mandatory eight-hour workday.
B) It effectively crushed union representation in the steel industry for over forty years, shifting the balance of power decisively toward industrial corporations.
C) It prompted the U.S. Supreme Court to permanently outlaw the use of private security forces like the Pinkertons in labor disputes.
D) It forced Andrew Carnegie to dissolve his steel empire and distribute his corporate shares directly to his employees.

B) It effectively crushed union representation in the steel industry for over forty years, shifting the balance of power decisively toward industrial corporations. The defeat of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers at Homestead was a catastrophic blow to the early American labor movement. By successfully utilizing the state militia to break the strike and hiring non-union “scab” labor to reopen the plant, management proved that organized workers could not withstand the combined might of massive industrial capital and government intervention. Following the strike, steel companies across the nation drastically cut wages, lengthened shifts to 12 hours (seven days a week), and systematically blacklisted union organizers. This effectively eliminated meaningful unionization in major American steel mills until the late 1930s, cementing corporate dominance over the workforce during the height of the Gilded Age.

12. Before he ever entered the electrical industry, the Pittsburgh industrialist George Westinghouse completely transformed American infrastructure at just 22 years old with his first major invention in 1869 that solved a deadly railroad crisis and fundamentally changed how goods and people moved across the expanding United States. What was this invention?

A) A vulcanized rubber switching tie that prevented train derailments on sharp mountain curves.
B) A compressed-air brake system that gave the engineer direct control to stop all railcars simultaneously, drastically increasing permissible train speeds and freight capacities.
C) A standardized, automatic knuckle coupler that replaced the hazardous link-and-pin system connecting railroad cars.
D) A steam-powered rotary track-clearing plow that kept vital northern rail lines open during severe winter blizzards.

B) A compressed-air brake system that gave the engineer direct control to stop all railcars simultaneously, drastically increasing permissible train speeds and freight capacities. In the mid-19th century, stopping a train was an incredibly slow and dangerous chore. When the engineer blew the whistle to slow down, teams of brakemen had to manually sprint across the roofs of rushing, swaying cars to turn heavy iron wheel brakes on each individual car. Because cars stopped at different rates, trains frequently crashed into themselves, and heavily loaded freight trains were strictly limited in how fast they could safely travel or how long they could be. Westinghouse’s revolutionary Air Brake changed everything by automatically triggering the brakes on decoupled cars. By taking the human error and delay out of braking, the invention allowed American railroads to safely run much heavier trains at double the previous speeds, thereby lowering shipping costs, accelerating the expansion of the western frontier, and providing the logistical backbone for the entire U.S. industrial revolution.

14. While Harry Davis and John P. Harris did not invent motion pictures, their opening of the Smithfield Street “Nickelodeon” in Pittsburgh on June 19, 1905, fundamentally transformed the global entertainment industry. What was the truly revolutionary business innovation behind their storefront theater?

A) It was the first venue to combine live vaudeville acts and synchronized talking sound with short silent films.
B) It established the first permanent, standalone theater dedicated exclusively to showing moving pictures continuously for a five-cent admission.
C) It introduced a strict, high-priced reservation system that transformed cinema from a working-class distraction into an elite cultural event.
D) It pioneered the use of a rear-projection system that hid the loud, hazardous film equipment behind a translucent screen to shield the audience from noise and fire risks.

B) It established the first permanent, standalone theater dedicated exclusively to showing moving pictures continuously for a five-cent admission. Before Davis and Harris opened their Pittsburgh storefront, films were generally treated as novelty side-shows. They were usually squeezed into the end of live vaudeville variety acts, penny arcades, or traveling carnivals as a brief closing attraction. By taking a small storefront and filling it with simple wooden chairs, Davis and Harris dedicated the space entirely to screening movies on a continuous loop for just a nickel. Their concept removed film from the upscale theater circuits and made it cheap, highly accessible, and independently sustainable. The idea was so wildly successful that it sparked a massive national phenomenon: between 1907 and 1908, the number of “Nickelodeons” across the country doubled to 8,000. By 1910, an estimated 26 million Americans were visiting them every single week, effectively creating the modern moviegoing public and launching the global film distribution industry.

15. During World War I, Pittsburgh’s industrial might earned it the nickname “The Forge of the Universe.” Western Pennsylvania industries produced an astonishing amount of the steel used by the U.S. and its Allies for helmets, ships, and shells. Approximately what percentage of Allied steel came from the region?

A) Between 10% and 15%
B) Between 25% and 30%
C) Between 60% and 65%
D) Over 80%

C) Between 60% and 65%. The industrial capacity of Pittsburgh mills like Homestead, Edgar Thomson, and Duquesne was absolutely vital to the Allied victory in 1918, supplying the literal backbone of the war effort.

17. While Pittsburgh artist J. Howard Miller’s famous 1942 “We Can Do It!” poster is globally recognized today as “Rosie the Riveter,” modern historical research has corrected two major misconceptions about it. What was the actual original purpose of the poster, and who is now known to be the real-life inspiration for the image?

A) It was a public recruitment tool to get women into factories, inspired by Michigan worker, Geraldine Hoff
B) It was a localized, internal motivational poster for existing workers of both sexes, inspired by California worker, Naomi Parker
C) It was a national advertisement for steel manufacturing, inspired by local Pittsburgh worker, Sarah Miller
D) It was an anti-war protest graphic, inspired by activist, Dorothy Day

B) It was a localized, internal motivational poster for existing workers of both sexes, inspired by California worker, Naomi Parker. The “We Can Do It!” poster was never actually meant to recruit women to the workforce, nor was it widely seen during World War II. Rather, it was displayed strictly to Westinghouse employees in the Midwest for a brief two-week period in February 1943 before disappearing for nearly forty years. As for the inspiration: while the media long reported that the original wire photograph Miller used for inspiration depicted a Michigan woman named Geraldine Hoff, recent evidence proved the photo actually showed Naomi Parker working at the Alameda Naval Air Station in California. The iconic image was only rediscovered in the 1980s, when it became a celebrated symbol of feminism and erroneously adopted the nickname “Rosie the Riveter.”

18. On September 1, 1971, Pittsburgh Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh made Major League Baseball history against the Philadelphia Phillies by doing something that had never been done in the sport before. What historic milestone did his starting lineup achieve that evening at Three Rivers Stadium?

A) It was the first time a starting lineup consisted entirely of players born outside the United States.
B) It was the first all-Black and Latino starting lineup in Major League Baseball history.
C) It was the first time every starting position player successfully recorded a hit and a stolen base in the same game.
D) It was the first lineup to feature three sets of biological brothers playing on the field at the same time.

B) It was the first all-Black and Latino starting lineup in Major League Baseball history. When the Pirates took the field that evening, manager Danny Murtaugh rolled out a groundbreaking lineup that featured legends like Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rico), Willie Stargell (United States), Manny Sanguillén (Panama), and Al Oliver (United States). Remarkably, the history-making moment wasn’t treated as a premeditated publicity stunt; Murtaugh famously noted afterward that he simply penciled in the nine best players he had available to win the game. The Pirates won the matchup 10-7 and went on to win the World Series that same year, proving that their talent-heavy, diverse roster was a winning formula.