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Downtown Pittsburgh Walking Tour
Item 2 of 20

The fort was built buy the French in 1754 at the site where the Allegheny and Monogahela river meet and turn into the Ohio River. The French occupied the fort during the first years of the French and Indian War.

  • In 1958, the Fort Duquesne stamp was released in Pittsburgh. This marked 200 years after the fort was burned and abandoned by the French at the juncture of the three rivers.
Fort Duquesne was known for the strategic location in which it was place, it could govern all three rivers, and thats why it was such a focal point of the war.<sub>1 </sub>The French were forced from the region during the Battle of Fort Duquesne in the fall of 1758. The French repulsed the initial attack but were deserted by their Native allies and forced to retreat. Before they did so, they destroyed the fort. The British took control of the area in the wake of the French retreat and constructed a much larger fort (Fort Pitt) on the same site.