PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — If you’ve ever been curious about the history of a Pittsburgh neighborhood or street, a new website might provide the answer.

The “Pittsburgh Mapping and Historical Site Viewer,” produced by the ESRI Mapping Center, is an interactive pathway to the past.

“The brick buildings are pink, and the wood-frame buildings are yellow. There’s a lot of detail here.” University of Pittsburgh neighborhood project manager Bob Gradek says displays digital maps on a screen.

He flips through 10 city maps, dating back to 1835.

“It’s just really neat to be able to go back in time,” Gradek says. “See the names, see the places, see the things that are still there, see the things that aren’t there anymore, and make some comparisons.”

He says Market Square is prominent in some of those early maps.

“And the Market House, you can see what was. And there’s also a link to Wikipedia,” he says.

A black-and-white image gives away to a photo of Market Square today.

Another map depicts a smoky freight yard on the site of what is now Point State Park.

But Gradek says your search can start closer to home.

“Maybe where you grew up, or where your family came from. And then you’ll explore around. See how much has changed,” he said. “See how much is still the same.”

The interactive maps of Pittsburgh may be seen by logging on to: http://peoplemaps.esri.com/pittviewer/

RELATED LINKS:
More Local News
More Reports from Dave Crawley

Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page
Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter