For a time in the mid to late 1800s, steamboats ruled the three rivers around Pittsburgh, hosting more than 2,000 annually. With huge round paddle wheels mounted on back, they were called sternwheelers and used to push barges of coal and iron ore, haul other goods and take passengers from place to place. Today sternwheelers still provide tourists with boat rides. Near the Duquesne Incline this old paddle wheel stands as a marker of this history. Along the bike trail to Station Square on the south shore you can find this and other large historic artifacts such as a Bessemer steel-making furnace set up by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks project.

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