In a time when people walked to work, school, church, the
pedestrian city had steps that guided people downslope from the
hilltops to the flats below.
Pittsburgh has 712 recorded public stepways in its inventory of
maintenance at the Public Works department. While some of these
steps are now crumbling, and closed to pedestrian traffic, there
are hundreds more, and are easily recognizable by its aqua colored
paint on its railings.
The steps intersection was recently used as a beverage stop of
a running club.
Author Bob Regan has written a
book on the steps of Pittsburgh.
These steps, called Staab Way in the old city maps, are
interesting for being an intersection of two stepways, and to my
knowledge, the only such occurrence in all of the city steps (Romeo
St in South Oakland is similar, but it is actually an intersection
of steps and raised flat walkway). Along Staab way, almost at the
intersecton of Bly St, there used to be a soap factory. The section
closest to Royal St is newer, probably to replace the old steps
that were demolished when the concrete wall siding Royal St was
built.
Cache is a metal box. Logbook inside cover is in the theme of
"Letter Y". After you find the cache, take a moment to explore the
area by walking up the steps a bit and scout the ghostly
foundations of previously inhabited hillsides.