North Belle Vernon, PA

North Belle Vernon sits on the north side of the Monongahela, where the river, the Pittsburgh Coal Seam, and old mine workings tell the local story before you reach the borough line. It grew beside Belle Vernon and Rostraver Township in the industrial valley south of Pittsburgh, with coal moving toward the river and the region's steel towns. The water company's history records a pumping station built in 1895 to lift river water into a reservoir serving North Belle Vernon and its neighbors. Today it is a small Westmoreland County borough on the edge of the Monongahela Valley, with abandoned mines underfoot and the river just beyond the streets.