Gribblenation

Of the five colored belt routes within Allegheny County, the Blue Belt runs the closest to Downtown Pittsburgh.  Like the Yellow Belt, it is a full loop.  However, the Blue Belt is the only one that enters Pittsburgh's City Limits.  The Blue Belt connects many inner-ring suburbs and city neighborhoods.  It is the most urban and dense of the five belt routes, but the route does have its share of green. Finally, there are plenty of surprises throughout the drive. To see the entire photo set on flickr, head here . The Route: West 8th Avenue (PA 837) in Homestead.  The Blue Belt turns left here to cross the Monongahela River via the Homestead Grays Bridge. We'll start our journey where PA 885 meets PA 837 at the Glenwood Bridge in Hays.  We'll take PA 837 South, headed towards Homestead.  The Blue Belt enters the former heart of the steel industry before turning left to cross the Monongahela via the Homestead Grays (High-Level) Bridge.  After crossing...

Allegheny County's Red Belt serves as a northern arc connecting communities between the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers along the northern-most reaches of the county.  It is the shortest and most remote of the county's five belt routes. For the entire photo set on flickr: head here . The start of Allegheny County's Red Belt in Leetsdale. The Route: The Red Belt begins at PA 65 in Leetsdale and, after winding through the community of Fair Oaks, begins a rural journey all the way to its eastern terminus in Tarentum.  It is a quiet, meandering two-lane journey past country churches, farms, and a handful of larger subdivisions.   Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church - one of many rural churches found along the Red Belt. A faded American flag mural on a barn near Culmersville. The Red Belt does not pass through any towns outside of a random crossroads.  Its intersection with Interstate 79 in Warrendale has some commercial development, but that quickly transitioned to higher-...

On the Allegheny County Belt Route System, as you get closer to the bottom of the rainbow, you get closer to Downtown Pittsburgh.  So, with the Green Belt, you begin to move closer to the inner suburbs, and for a brief moment or two, within the limits of the City of Pittsburgh.  With this, I had expected to travel through some of the higher-density neighborhoods and communities surrounding the city.  As I drove through the hollows and cut across the North Hills, I did not expect the scenery of the Green Belt to closely resemble its name. Take your pick! Two different Green Belt signs along PA 837 in Duquesne. The Green Belt, for most of its nearly 40-mile arc around the eastern and northern city limits of Pittsburgh, offered far more "green" than you'd expect. The Route: The Green Belt runs a 2/3 loop around the eastern, northern, and northwestern communities that border the City of Pittsburgh.  Since it is not a full loop, there is a definite beginning and end to th...

If Allegheny County's Orange Belt takes you to the outer edges of the county; the Yellow Belt, in contrast, may be the ultimate day trip within the county.  Shorter - and not as long or tedious of a drive - the Yellow Belt gives you a little bit of everything - suburbs, Mon Valley Industrial towns, recreation, and access to nearby shopping centers. The Yellow Belt is a slightly over 75-mile-long journey through the heart of Allegheny County.  Though it is not as frustrating as the Orange Belt - fewer turns onto various roads and doesn't take as long - it still is a slow and at times frustrating drive at just under three hours.  But the variety of landscapes and proximity to various activities make it a great day trip for exploring.  And in a county as big as Allegheny, a chance to see much of the area you may have never seen before. The Route: The Yellow Belt through East McKeesport. I began my journey in McKeesport at the intersection of Hartman Street and PA 148....