George Westinghouse: Powering the World from Pittsburgh

Introduction: The Birthplace of Modern Power

When Pittsburgh’s industrial titans are named, Carnegie and Mellon often dominate the conversation. But another name, George Westinghouse, arguably changed the world just as profoundly. His innovations in electric power, rail safety and industrial technology not only shaped Pittsburgh but revolutionized modern life globally. Over his career he received 360 patents and established 61 companies, many of which still exist in some form.

This is the story of how Westinghouse’s empire grew from Pittsburgh, transforming the city into the cradle of American electricity, transportation and nuclear power, a legacy that still echoes today.

George Westinghouse: The Relentless Inventor

Born in 1846 in Central Bridge, New York, George Westinghouse was an engineer and inventor from the start. He grew up in his father’s machine shop, served in the Union Army and Navy during the Civil War, and received his first patent, for a rotary steam engine, at 19. In 1869 he demonstrated his compressed-air railroad brake in Pittsburgh, replacing a system in which brakemen ran along the tops of moving cars to turn hand brakes. The air brake vastly improved railroad safety and made longer trains possible.

Why Pittsburgh?

Westinghouse moved to Pittsburgh in 1868. He came to get better and cheaper steel for the railroad “frogs,” or track-switching pieces, that he manufactured, and it was in Pittsburgh that he developed his air brake. The city offered what he needed: iron and steel, skilled labor and rail connections (see our history of Pittsburgh’s railroads and Union Station). The Westinghouse Air Brake Company was founded in Pittsburgh in 1869. In 1889 its factory moved east to Wilmerding, Pennsylvania, where the company built its general office building, and a company town grew around the plant.

Building an Industrial Empire in Pittsburgh

Between the 1860s and his death, George Westinghouse established 61 companies, many of them headquartered in or around Pittsburgh. The most important were:

1. Westinghouse Air Brake Company (1869)

Revolutionized railroad safety globally.
By 1905, more than two million freight, passenger and other cars and 89,000 locomotives were equipped with Westinghouse air brakes.

2. Union Switch & Signal (1881)

Westinghouse and his engineers developed track-switching and signaling systems to replace oil lamps and manually thrown switches.

3. Westinghouse Machine Company (1881)

Built steam engines for industry and, after Westinghouse bought rights to the Parsons turbine in 1895, steam turbines for power generation.

4. Westinghouse Electric Company (1886)

Founded on January 8, 1886 as Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, it pioneered the use of alternating current (AC) power.
Became the chief rival of Thomas Edison’s direct current (DC) systems.
Its main works were built in East Pittsburgh in 1895.

Westinghouse’s interests were not limited to railroads and electricity. In the 1880s he drilled for natural gas on his Pittsburgh estate, Solitude (today Westinghouse Park), and his Philadelphia Company built a gas distribution system. By 1887 it served more than 12,000 homes. It later spawned companies including Equitable Gas and Duquesne Light. Our article on Pittsburgh’s role in the 19th-century oil boom covers the region’s other energy history. Westinghouse’s companies employed thousands of people across Western Pennsylvania, turning towns like East Pittsburgh, Trafford and Wilmerding into industrial powerhouses.

The War of Currents: Pittsburgh vs. Edison

Perhaps Westinghouse’s most famous battle was his showdown with Thomas Edison in the War of Currents:

Edison pushed DC power, which was practical only over short distances from a local generating station.
Westinghouse backed alternating current, which could be “stepped up” in voltage by transformers for long-distance transmission and stepped down for use. His engineers improved the early transformer designs, and he obtained the rights to Nikola Tesla’s AC induction motor and related patents.

The Turning Point

1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago): Westinghouse Electric won the contract to light the fair’s “White City” with AC, demonstrating a complete AC system.
Niagara Falls (1895–1896): The success at Chicago helped Westinghouse win the contract for the Adams Power Plant at Niagara Falls, where the company built ten 5,000-horsepower, two-phase AC generators. The generators began producing power in 1895 and Niagara electricity was transmitted to Buffalo in 1896, a major technological and public relations victory.

AC won, and Pittsburgh became a heart of America’s electric revolution.

Nuclear Power and Mid-20th Century Expansion

Westinghouse didn’t stop with electricity and railroads, and the company he founded kept growing after he lost control of it in the Panic of 1907 and died in 1914:

Shippingport, PA (1957): The Shippingport Atomic Power Station, about 25 miles from Pittsburgh on the Ohio River, was the world’s first full-scale atomic power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses. It reached criticality on December 2, 1957 and sent its first power to Duquesne Light’s grid on December 18, 1957. Westinghouse’s experience with the U.S. Navy’s nuclear program helped it become a leader in commercial reactors.
Broadcasting: Westinghouse moved into radio broadcasting starting around 1919, including Pittsburgh’s KDKA. See our KDKA radio history.
Appliances, rail transit, turbines and defense became large parts of the company’s business.

Impact on Pittsburgh’s Communities and Workforce

Westinghouse shaped not just industries but communities:

Wilmerding and East Pittsburgh were “Westinghouse towns.” Wilmerding was a planned community with worker houses outfitted with running water, electricity and gas, built around the air brake plant.
The company also provided worker housing and activities in the early 1900s, according to accounts of Wilmerding.
Westinghouse was personally remembered with affection: in 1930, about 50,000 of his employees paid for the George Westinghouse Memorial in Schenley Park.

Westinghouse helped create Pittsburgh’s reputation as a center for engineering and innovation, a legacy still seen in the region’s tech and robotics sectors. For the broader story see a timeline of Pittsburgh’s history.

Challenges, Breakups, and Reinvention

The late 20th century brought challenges:

The company closed the East Pittsburgh generator plant in 1988.
After losses in financial services, a 1992 restructuring began the sell-off of divisions. Westinghouse bought CBS in 1995 and became the original CBS Corporation in 1997, ending its life as an industrial conglomerate.

Yet the Westinghouse name and nuclear business were reinvented:

Westinghouse Electric Company, formed in 1999 from the original company’s nuclear division, is headquartered in Cranberry Township, north of Pittsburgh.
It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2017 amid cost overruns on AP1000 reactor projects in Georgia and South Carolina, and was sold to Brookfield Business Partners in 2018.
The Westinghouse name lives on in energy, appliances and historical sites.

The Lasting Legacy: Powering the World from Pittsburgh

Few companies have shaped the modern world, and Pittsburgh, like Westinghouse:

Made AC power the standard, electrifying the world.
Transformed railroads, factories and homes.
Helped birth nuclear energy.

Today, Westinghouse’s impact is still visible in Pittsburgh’s landscape, economy and spirit of innovation.

Famous Westinghouse Landmarks

The George Westinghouse Memorial in Schenley Park (1930).
The George Westinghouse Memorial Bridge (1932), carrying U.S. Route 30 over the Turtle Creek valley where his companies flourished; see Pittsburgh’s bridges.
Wilmerding’s Westinghouse Air Brake Company General Office Building, the “Castle” (1889–1890, rebuilt 1896), designed by Frederick J. Osterling and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
East Pittsburgh’s former massive electric works campus.

Conclusion: Pittsburgh’s Global Powerhouse

George Westinghouse’s vision turned Pittsburgh into a global center of energy, innovation and industrial might. His legacy lives on in the power grids, railways and reactors that shape our world today, a true testament to Pittsburgh’s role in powering modern life.

Keep Reading

Sources: Wikipedia’s articles on George Westinghouse, the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Company, Wilmerding and the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, and the sources they cite.