The city of Pittsburgh has always been known as the 'Steel City.' There's a reason why the football team is named The Pittsburgh Steelers. Whether there were steel mills that would produce automatic banding machines or laser engraving machines, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania used to be a big time blue collar steel town. Whether they worked at a steel mill as a general laborer or drove a septic tank pump truck, people took pride in the job they did. However, times change and cities change as well. To continue surviving, the city of Pittsburgh had to adapt to the times and that they did. This section of our site will be talking about the types of Pittsburgh industries that used to make up the town, what industries are currently running things and a little bit about the future of Pittsburgh.

Everyone seems to know that Pittsburgh is 'Steel Town' and that the Steelers are king in Pittsburgh. These both used to be well known facts. The Steelers might be champs but the town of Pittsburgh is no longer just a 'Steel Town.' The humongous steel mills that lined up the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers are no longer there. The tall smokestacks that came with them are also gone. There was a time that any steel bulb keel produced was probably made in Pittsburgh. That's not the case any longer. While Pittsburgh used to produce more than a third of the country's steel back in the day, the 1970's and 80's steel industry declined which led to massive job losses.

By the time the 80's rolled around, Pittsburgh switched its focus to the tourism, education and services industries. The new industry shift was basing itself around medicine, technology and health care. There's a greater chance of you buying robotics than web slings with a stamp that says 'Made in Pittsburgh.' The one reason that Pittsburgh was able to effortlessly switch over was because they still held on to their strong work values. People had pride working in the steel mills and doing blue collar work. Those beliefs and ideals were transferred over to these new industries which made the transition smoother.

The steel industry isn't quite dead in Pittsburgh. You can see it here and there. There are still some steel suppliers located in Pittsburgh such as Mecco Marking and Pittsburgh is home to about 25 percent of the country's steel suppliers but it's not as big as it once was. The technology industry might be the most important industry in Pittsburgh today. Pittsburgh is currently one of world's top cities when it comes to robotics. With the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute leading the way with their top research programs, Pittsburgh is looked to when it comes to the robotics industry. It shall continue to remain that way and Pittsburgh will continue to play a big part of the robotics industry in the future.

Whatever industry the city of Pittsburgh is involved in, they always seem to find a way to make it work. We wouldn't bet against Pittsburgh if they decided one day to become the world's leaders in manufacturing pressure calibrators because if they put their minds to it, they could do it. We hope you've learned a bit about the history of Pittsburgh's industries and what the town is like now.