ability fund for the assistance of those killed or injured while on duty. The police administration is, under the director of the department of public safety, in the hands of two coordinate bureaus, police and detective. The fire department is under the control of a chief engineer. Its equipment is excellent, but the water supply at present is inadequate, and insurance rates are accordingly high.
Municipal Finances. The total assessed valuation of the city in 1903 was $375,163,051. The gross bonded indebtedness was $21,391,201, and the net debt $15,740,838. The limit of indebtedness is fixed by law at seven per cent. of the assessed valuation. The real estate owned by the city, exclusive of school properties, is valued at $17,406,206, the water plant forming the largest single item—$5,969,300. The water supply is drawn from the Allegheny River, and is not good. The electors have authorized the construction of an extensive sand filtration plant from the proceeds of a bond issue. The parks are valued at $3,436,835; the bureau of fire properties at $815,000; the bureau of police properties at $203,400; and the municipal hall at $870,000. The total revenue of the city for the fiscal year ending January 31, 1903, applicable to general expenditure, was $7,094,204. Of this sum the department of public works expended $1,394,745, including $235,000 for the repaving of streets. During the same period $886,000 expended for the paving and sewering of new streets was paid by the owners of abutting property. The department of public safety expended $1,387,035, the principal items of which were for fire and police protection. The department of charities maintains a city farm at Marshalsea, and on this and for outside relief expended $131,352. The appropriation for interest and sinking fund was $1,595,834. The city maintains a municipal hospital for contagious diseases, and was one of the first in the country to engage in the production and free distribution of diphtheria antitoxin serum.
Population. The growth of Pittsburg during the past few decades has been very rapid. In 1900 the city's population was 321,616. In 1800 it was but 1565. The population by succeeding censuses follows: 1810, 4768; 1820, 7284; 1830, 12,542; 1840, 21,115; 1850, 46,601; 1860, 49,221; 1870, 86,076; 1880, 121,799; 1890, 238,617. Of the population in 1900, 236,738 were native born and 84,878 foreign born, while 171,225 were of foreign parentage. The preponderance of the iron and steel industries draws a large foreign population to the city and vicinity. The colored population is large, in 1900 having been 17,195.
History. As early as 1730 the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers became a centre of trading operations with the Indians. France and England were rival claimants to the region, and on the English side both Pennsylvania and Virginia asserted jurisdiction. While on his mission to warn the French away from the Allegheny Valley, Washington visited the site of Pittsburg in November, 1753. He wrote in his journal: “I spent some time in viewing the rivers and the land in the forks, which I think extremely well situated for a fort, as it has absolute command of both rivers.” In the interest of the Ohio Company (q.v.). Captain Trent, with a few Virginia militia, began to build a fort at this place, in February, 1754. On April 17th a force of 700 French and Canadians forced the Virginians to leave. The works were completed and enlarged by the French and named Fort Duquesne. In an effort to retake the place a strong British expedition under General Braddock met disastrous defeat at the hands of the French and Indians, eight miles from Fort Duquesne, on July 9, 1755. In 1758 General Forbes, moving from Philadelphia, led an army of 7500 against Fort Duquesne. A party of 800, under Major James Grant, attempted to surprise the fort on the morning of September 14th, but was overwhelmed and routed. The site of this defeat is a hill in the business centre of the city, now occupied by the Court House and the Frick Building. Forbes by November 24th was within fifteen miles of Fort Duquesne. The French then burned the fort and fled. Forbes occupied the place on November 25th and named it “Pittsburgh,” in honor of England's Prime Minister. A small garrison remained over winter, and in 1759 General Stanwix constructed Fort Pitt. During Pontiac's war in 1763 the fort was vigorously besieged by the Indians from June 27th to August 6th. Col. Henry Bouquet, with 500 British regulars, marched from Carlisle to the relief of the fort, defeated the Indians at Bushy Run, 30 miles east of Pittsburg, after a two days' fight, and reached the fort on August 9th. In 1764 Bouquet erected a brick blockhouse a short distance from the fort, and this is the only structure of colonial times remaining at Pittsburg. It is owned and preserved by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
In 1768 John Campbell laid out a small plan of lots near the fort, whereon cabins were erected by sufferance of the fort's commander. The title to the country surrounding Pittsburg was bought from the Iroquois in 1768, and in April, 1769, the Penns opened a land office, but sold nothing within the manor of Pittsburg. Titles under Pennsylvania were not popular, but a strong emigration set in from Virginia. Washington, on a journey down the Ohio River to seek bounty lands for his soldiers, visited Pittsburg in October, 1770. He then wrote: “The houses, which are built of logs, and ranged in streets, are on the Monongahela, and I suppose may be about twenty in number and inhabited by Indian traders.” In 1772 Fort Pitt was evacuated by the British, but two years later it was occupied by Virginia militia and Virginia authority was established. Virginia courts were held in Pittsburg in 1775-76 and Virginia governed the country until the boundary dispute was adjusted in 1781. During the Revolution Fort Pitt was garrisoned by Continental troops, who were occupied in frequent excursions against the Indians. The Penns began the sale of lots in the manor of Pittsburg in 1784, in which year Arthur Lee thus described the place: “Pittsburgh is inhabited almost entirely by Scots and Irish, who live in paltry log houses. There are in the town four attorneys, two doctors, and not a priest of any persuasion, nor church, nor chapel, so that they are likely to be damned without the benefit of clergy. The place, I believe, will never be very considerable.” Allegheny County was erected in 1788, and the court house was established at Pittsburg. The opening of the Northwest Territory gave an impetus to trade, but Pittsburg's real growth did not begin until the close of Indian hostilities in 1795. In 1794
