1948 Donora smog

The Donora Smog Museum features a collection of archival materials documenting the Donora Smog of 1948, an air inversion of smog containing fluorine that killed 20 people in Donora, Pennsylvania, United States, a mill town 20 miles south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River. Donora was home to U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant. The event is sometimes credited for initiating the clean-air movement in the United States, whose crowning achievement was the Clean Air Act. The museum, which opened October 20, 2008, is located at 595 McKean Avenue near Sixth Street in an old storefront. The museum has partnered with California University of Pennsylvania to develop a digital collection of primary sources that are archived on site.

Donora is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States, approximately 20 miles (32 km) south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. The population was 4,558 as of the 2020 census.Donora was incorporated in 1901. It takes its name from a portmanteau of William Donner and Nora Mellon, wife of banker Andrew W. Mellon. The borough's nickname is "The Home of Champions", mainly because of the large number of famous athletes who have called Donora their home, including Baseball Hall of Fame outfielders Stan Musial and Ken Griffey Jr. Agriculture, coal-mining, steel-making, wire-making, and other industries were conducted in Donora early in its history; its Rust Belt location has lost most of its industrial capacity. It is in the "Mon Valley", 5 miles (8.0 km) downriver from Charleroi and 25 miles (40 km) upstream of Braddock.

The Donora–Webster Bridge was a truss bridge spanning the Monongahela River between the borough of Donora, Pennsylvania and the village of Webster in Rostraver Township, Pennsylvania. Originally built in 1908 to serve rail traffic, the bridge was eventually fully converted in 1938 for automobile use only.. The structure connected Route 837 on the west bank of the river and Route 906 on the east side. The closest open crossings are at Route 1022 (Donora-Monessen Bridge) to the south (upstream), and the Route 136 (Monongahela City Bridge) to the north (downstream), a several-mile detour either way. On July 1, 2015, the bridge was demolished after being closed for several years due to severe structural deficiency. The bridge's closure was the subject of criticism by locals, as it was blamed for worsening Donora's already poor economic situation. Pennsylvania state representative Peter Daley pushed for a restoration or replacement of the original bridge, but to no avail, sealing the fate of the area.It was designated as a historic bridge by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation.

Webster is a census-designated place located in Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County in the state of Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located along Pennsylvania Route 906. It was laid out in 1833 by Benjamin Beazell, and named for the Federalist statesman Daniel Webster. As of the 2010 census the population was 255 residents.

Cement City Historic District is a historic district in Donora, Pennsylvania. The district includes 80 Prairie School concrete residences built in 1916–17. The homes served as housing for employees of the American Steel and Wire Company. Poured-in-place concrete houses had become popular in large-scale housing developments at the time, partly thanks to promotion by Thomas Edison; the homes built in Donora used a newly patented construction method from the Lambie Concrete House Corporation. Building the houses required a combined 10,000 barrels of Portland cement.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. In 1997, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission installed a historical marker on McKean Ave. (Pa. 837) in South Donora, noting the historic importance of the community. It is designated as a historic district by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation. Many of the original cement homes are still standing today, and currently serve as private residences.

The Donora–Monessen Bridge, officially known as the Stan Musial Bridge, is a truss bridge that carries vehicles across the Monongahela River between Donora and Monessen in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The bridge was built in 1972, as part of a 1960s-era project to increase access to the industrial Monongahela Valley through a semi-freeway connection to Interstate 70. However, the decline of the steel sector halted area road construction, and the entire project was not completed until 1989. The road was originally named for former State Engineer C. Vance DeiCas.In 2011, a bill was introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to rename the structure for Baseball Hall of Fame member Stan Musial, a Donora native. Effective January 8, 2012, Musial's name adorned the bridge.

Fellsburg is a census-designated place located in Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County in the state of Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to the Fells Church, overlooking the Monongahela and Youhgiogheny Valleys. As of the 2010 census the population was 1,180 residents.

Eldora Park was an amusement park that opened in 1901 in Eldora, Pennsylvania. It survived for three decades before closing from poor economics and declining attendance. Eldora Park was located in the Black Diamond area of Carroll Township between Charleroi, Donora and Monongahela in Washington County. It was on the Pittsburgh Railways Company's interurban trolley that ran from Roscoe to Pittsburgh. It was a popular location for outings for mine worker unions, schools, community associations, and for family reunions. The park had a merry-go-round, a roller coaster, a motion picture tent called the Electric Theatre, slides, swings, picnic tables, a restaurant, and a dance pavilion. The park's Figure Eight roller coaster is believed to have been designed by Frederick Ingersoll, a native Pittsburgher who designed, built, and operated a roller coaster at Kennywood Park called the Figure Eight and opened Luna Park, Pittsburgh in 1905. The popularity of Eldora Park's amusement park declined in the 1920s, while the dance hall continued to host big bands through the 1930s. Lawrence Welk, Frank Lombardo, and The Golden Gate Five (a popular local band) were among the headliners. Steve Woodward, Guy Moffitt and Tom Sloan were financial backers credited with building the park on property formerly owned by the Wickerham family, one of the pioneer families in the area.The Depression, World War II, declining ridership on the trolley, and interest in other forms of entertainment, are all credited with the park's demise. The dance hall was used as a roller skating rink before the park closed in the 1940s. The park was chartered to the Charleroi Girl Scouts in the mid 1940s and used as a day camp called Camp Charwood into the 1970s. After camp sites (10'x12' railed tent platforms) were built in the woods on the property, Charwood also saw overnight camping through at least the late 1960s. Great Hall, as the dance hall was then called, was also used by the Girl Scouts for roller skating and, in bad weather, for various other activities.

The Rostraver Ice Garden is a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena in the Pittsburgh suburb of Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, USA at exit 43, 43a and 43b on Interstate 70[1].

The Belle Vernon Area School District is a midsized, rural, public school district located approximately 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Pittsburgh in rural Westmoreland County and Fayette County. The present school district was formed by a merger of the previous Belmar (having itself been the result of a merge between the Belle Vernon and Marion school districts) and Rostraver school districts in 1965. The district serves five political subdivisions located in 2 counties: Washington Township, Fayette City, North Belle Vernon, Belle Vernon, and Rostraver Township. Belle Vernon Area School District area is 42.2 square miles (109 km2). Belle Vernon Area School District in southwestern Pennsylvania lies midway between the cities of Pittsburgh on the north, Uniontown on the south, Washington to the west, and Greensburg to the east. Belle Vernon Area School District had a population as of 2000 of 20,127 residents. By 2010, the district's population declined to 18,912 people. The educational attainment levels for the School District population (25 years old and over) were 91% high school graduates and 21.6% college graduates. The district is one of the 500 public school districts of Pennsylvania. According to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, 35.3% of the district's pupils lived at 185% or below the Federal Poverty Level as shown by their eligibility for the federal free or reduced price school meal programs in 2012. In 2013, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, reported that 23 students in the Belle Vernon Area School District were homeless. In 2009, the district residents’ per capita income was $18,808, while the median family income was $43,201. In the Commonwealth, the median family income was $49,501 and the United States median family income was $49,445, in 2010. In Westmoreland County, the median household income was $50,736. By 2013, the median household income in the United States rose to $52,100. In 2014, the median household income in the USA was $53,700.Belle Vernon Area School District operates four schools: Rostraver Elementary School, Marion Elementary School, Belle Vernon Area Middle School and Belle Vernon Area High School. The district also offers an online education alternative called BVA eAcademy for pupils in 7th to 12th grades. High school students may choose to attend the Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center which is located in New Stanton, Pa, for training in the construction and mechanical trades. The Westmoreland Intermediate Unit IU7, located in Greensburg, Pennsylvania provides the district with a wide variety of services like: specialized education for disabled students and hearing; state mandated recognizing and reporting child abuse training; speech and visual disability services; criminal background check processing for prospective employees, as well as professional development for employees.