ALLEGHENY. An important manufactur ing city, in Allegheny Co., Pa., on the north bank of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, opposite Pitts burg (Map: Pennsylvania, A 3). The Allegheny River is crossed by several large bridges, afford ing ample facilities for communication between the two cities, which form one industrial and social community. The most important indus trial establishments are the extensive iron and steel rolling mills, and car and locomotive works; but there are also manufactures of textile goods, flour, salt, sanitary plumbing supplies, white lead, leather, stoves, ranges, and pickles and preserves. The river traffic, which is very im portant, is controlled by Pittsburg. (See PITTS BURG.) Allegheny is the terminus of the West ern Pennsylvania, the Pittsburg and Western, and the Buffalo, Rochester. and Pittsburg; and is on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne, and Chicago, the Cleveland and Pittsburg, the Pittsburg and Erie, and the Pittsburg and New Castle, all of which belong to the western division of the Penn sylvania system. Electric street railways give additional transit facilities to Pittsburg and neighboring towns.
The city is located on hilly ground, and covers an area of about twelve square miles. The two most prominent buildings are the city hall and the public library, facing each other at the cross of Ohio and Federal streets, while the public market is at a third corner. The Western (State) Penitentiary is located here. The Liberty Skin ment, situated on an eminence in West Park, and others of local interest are prominent. fea tures. In the centre of the city is a public park of 100 acres, with fountains, lakes, and a ment to Humboldt; and in the northern out skirts is Riverview Park. Allegheny Park and the Washington Monument are additional points of interest. The Allegheny General, Pres byterian, and St. John General hospitals, the colored Orphan Home. Ridge Avenue Orphans' Home, the Dome of the Friendless, the dusky Orphanage, the United Presbyterian Children's Dome, and the Allegheny Industrial School are among the benevolent institutions of the city.
Of important educational institutions there are three theological seminaries, connected with dif ferent brandies of the Presbyterian Church, and the Western University of Pennsylvania. The latter was established in 1819, and now has about 700 students, over 500 of whom are in the professional departments. The university and Allegheny Observatory occupy a high bill in the northern part of the city. In connection with the public schools there is a library of 17,000 volumes, but the Carnegie Public Library of 42,000 volumes is much more important. The university and seminary libraries are not acces sible to the public.
Allegheny is a city of the second class. The administration is vested in a recorder, elected every three years, and a bicameral council. The recorder, with the consent of the select council, appoints the treasurer, assessors, department of law, the directors of public works, public safety, and public charities, recorder's clerk, and police magistrates. The council elects the city clerk. The comptroller is chosen by popular vote. The an income and expenditures of the city amount to about $2,830,000 and $2,570,000, respectively, the principal items of expense being $130.000 for the police department, $130,000 for the fire de partment, $350,000 for schools, $180.000 for the operation of the water works, and $80,000 for street lighting.
Allegheny was laid out in 1788, and was incor porated as a borough in 1828, and in 1840 as a city. On July 4, 1874, occurred a disastrous fire, in which 199 buildings were consumed or badly damaged, and three weeks later a local flood, resulting from an abnormal rainfall, destroyed a great amount of property and caused 124 deaths. The city's growth since 1870 has been remarkable. Pop.. 1870. 53.180; 1880, 78,682; 1890, 105,2S7; 1900, 129,890, including 30,200 persons of foreign birth and 3300 of negro descent. Consult: T. Cushing. History of Alle gheny County (Chicago, 1889) ; and Lambing and White, Allegheny County: Its Early His tory and Subsequent Development (Pittsburg, 1888).