Turtle Creek is a
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the
Monongahela River in
Allegheny and
Westmoreland counties in the
U.S. state of
Pennsylvania.
At its juncture with the Monongahela is
Braddock, Pennsylvania, where the
Battle of the Monongahela ("Braddock's Defeat") was fought in 1755. In the mid-19th century, the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
laid tracks along the stream as part of its
Main Line from
Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh.
Course
The
headwaters of Turtle Creek are in
Delmont. The stream flows westward through the municipalities of Export, Murrysville, Monroeville, Penn Township, Trafford, Pitcairn, Wilmerding, Turtle Creek, East Pittsburgh and North Braddock, before and entering the Monongahela River in
North Versailles Township.
History
The western frontier: 1700s

Turtle Creek is the English translation of the Native American name, naming the area for its abundance of turtles.
In the mid-18th century the Turtle Creek valley lay on the western frontier of the British colony of Pennsylvania, and much of its early
written history revolved around the
French and Indian War. In 1755 the first major battle in the theater took place near the mouth of Turtle Creek at the Monongahela river, where the British General
Edward Braddock was mortally wounded and his forces compelled to retreat from what became a
failed expedition to capture the French
Fort Duquesne. In 1758 General
John Forbes led a more formidable and ultimately
successful expedition against the fort, establishing a more northerly
military road which crossed Turtle Creek in what is now Murrysville.
In 1763 the war with the French was concluded and
Pontiac's War began, in which
Henry Bouquet's forces engaged a group of allied tribal forces at the
Battle of Bushy Run. Upon defeating his opponents, Bouquet followed them downstream to the banks of Turtle Creek near what would become the town of
Pitcairn, where he found the Native American forces had hastily abandoned their camp site, which Boquet referred to as a "Dirty Camp". Bouquet's description inspired the name of small stream that flows into Turtle Creek there, "Dirty Camp Run".
After these hostilities abated,
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
, who was part of both Braddock's ill-fated expedition and Forbes' successful campaign, returned to the area and is believed to have followed roads along Brush Creek and Turtle Creek en route to and from
Fort Pitt. Washington traveled through the area multiple times, and was known to have stopped at the residences of two early settlers of the Turtle Creek area.
One was Martha Miers, a French and Indian war widow, who had an inn near Thompson Run. The other was
John Fraser John Fraser may refer to:
Politics
*John Simon Frederick Fraser (1765–1803), commanded the Fraser Fencibles in Ireland and was (M.P.) for Inverness-shire
*John James Fraser (1829–1896), 5th Premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, 18 ...
, who had served with Washington under General Braddock and who settled near the mouth of Turtle Creek.
Railroads and industrialization: ~1850-1900s

A century after the first military roads were blazed through the Turtle Creek valley, another type of road would take advantage of the gentle gradient that the creek carved through the surrounding hills. In 1852, the
Main Line of the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
opened for business, transporting passengers and freight between
Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh via track laid along the left bank of the lower section of Turtle Creek and farther upstream through the Brush Creek valley.
In 1891 the Turtle Creek Valley Railroad began service from
Trafford
Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, ...
along the middle and upper sections of Turtle Creek. It was acquired by the PRR in 1903, and the railroad would be further extended beyond the bounds of the Turtle Creek watershed to
Saltsburg
Saltsburg is a borough in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its location is in western Pennsylvania, in the southwestern corner of Indiana County near its border with Westmoreland County.
The town was based on the construction of salt ...
.
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...
's
Union Railroad was laid along Turtle Creek and its tributary, Thompson Run connecting to his
Edgar Thomson Steel Works The Edgar Thomson Steel Works is a steel mill in the Pittsburgh area communities of Braddock and North Braddock, Pennsylvania, United States. It has been active since 1875. It is currently owned by U.S. Steel and is known as Mon Valley Works – E ...
in Braddock.
George Westinghouse
George Westinghouse Jr. (October 6, 1846 – March 12, 1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age o ...
's
Interworks Railway began service in 1902, connecting his three major manufacturing facilities in the lower Turtle Creek valley.
As industry grew in the Turtle Creek valley, several towns began to grow around the factories, railroads and resources along the creek. By 1876, the largest towns along Turtle Creek were the railroad towns of
Port Perry
Port Perry is a community located in Scugog, Ontario, Canada. The town is located northeast of central Toronto and north of Oshawa and Whitby, Ontario, Whitby. Port Perry has a population of 9,453 as of 2016.
Port Perry serves as the administra ...
, which no longer exists and
Turtle Creek, which was incorporated in 1892. Pitcairn incorporated in 1894 and the borough of
Wall
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including:
* Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the su ...
incorporated on the opposite bank of the creek a decade later; both grew in response to the sprawling rail-yard between them.
East Pittsburgh
East Pittsburgh is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, about southeast of the confluence of the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers at Pittsburgh. The population in 1900 stood at 2,883, and in 1910, at 5,615. As of the 2020 census, th ...
,
Wilmerding
Wilmerding is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,190 at the 2010 census. It is located southeast of Pittsburgh. At the start of the twentieth century, it had extensive foundries and machine shops ...
and Trafford all populated with the workers of the Westinghouse factories. The town of
Export
An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...
was established near the headwaters of Turtle Creek as a mining community, which exported coal via the Turtle Creek Branch of the PRR to industrial areas downstream and elsewhere.
The 21st century
At the beginning of the 21st century, much of the infrastructure that changed the Turtle Creek valley remains in place, but has changed in form and purpose. The Pennsylvania Railroad's main line has become
Norfolk Southern
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...
's
Pittsburgh Line
The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combin ...
, where heavy freight traffic still runs, but passenger service has been reduced to once per day on
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
's ''
Pennsylvanian Pennsylvanian may refer to:
* A person or thing from Pennsylvania
* Pennsylvanian (geology)
The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS geologic timesca ...
''. Passengers no longer board trains at Pitcairn Station; its yards have been converted into NS's Intermodal Terminal. The Edgar Thomson Steel Works and Union Railroad still operate, now under the control of
US Steel
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in several countries ...
and its subsidiary
Transtar. Westinghouse's railroad is gone, but his airbrake facility still operates at its original site under the name
Wabtec
Wabtec Corporation (derived from Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation) is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered ...
; the Westinghouse electrical plant is now the Keystone Commons industrial park, and portions of the foundries in Trafford have become baseball facilities, with other parts awaiting redevelopment. The Turtle Creek Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad served out its final three decades as a privately owned short-line, the
Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad
The Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad was a short line railroad, short line freight railroad that operated in western Pennsylvania between the boroughs of Export, Pennsylvania, Export and Trafford, Pennsylvania, Trafford, where it connected to ...
, before flooding from the creek prompted its end of service and eventual conversion into part of the
Westmoreland Heritage Trail
The Westmoreland Heritage Trail is a partially completed rail trail in southwestern Pennsylvania. As of 2019, 18.0 miles of the 21.9 planned miles of trail are complete, including an 8.7 mile section from Saltsburg to the fringe of Delmont as wel ...
. The coal mines in the Turtle Creek watershed have all closed, but the
abandoned mine drainage
Abandoned mine drainage (also known as AMD) is a form of water pollution involving water that has been polluted by contact with mines, typically coal mines. Although it is sometimes called "acid mine drainage", not all abandoned mine drainage is ...
they emit continues to adversely effect the aquatic life in the creek.
Watershed

The Turtle Creek watershed is the region drained by Turtle Creek. Sixty-six percent of its area is in
Westmoreland County, with the balance in
Allegheny County
Allegheny County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia C ...
. The watershed's area is . It drains forests, farmlands, abandoned mines, and urban and suburban communities. The watershed includes portions of 33 municipalities. The lower watershed drains a heavily industrial area between the cities of
Pittsburgh and
McKeesport
McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers and within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 17,727 as of the 2020 census. I ...
.
The number of "subwatersheds" within the Turtle Creek Watershed depends on which organization defines the boundaries of these geographical regions. The
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...
(USGS) divides the Turtle Creek Watershead into four subwatersheds, giving each a 12-digit
hydrologic unit code
A hydrological code or hydrologic unit code is a sequence of numbers or letters (a ''geocode'') that identify a hydrological unit or feature, such as a river, river reach, lake, or area like a drainage basin (also called watershed in North Americ ...
(HUC).
The Turtle Creek Watershed Association (TCWA), motivated by guidelines which stated that a watershed should be "2 to 15 square miles" in size, has further divided most of the USGS subwatersheads into 14 subwatershed planing units.
Both the USGS's and the TCWA's defined watersheds are listed in the table in this section.
Flow Alterations
Channelization

The flow-line of Mid-twentieth century Turtle Creek meandered noticeably less than it did a hundred years earlier, particularly in its lower regions between Trafford and the mouth of the creek at the Monongahela River. This artificial channelization of the creek was prompted by industrialization of the region. Diversions to suit the expanding railroads of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company had the most obvious impacts, while alterations to suit the needs of George Westinghouse's manufacturing companies and Andrew Carnegie's steel operations are also evident in changes shown in historical maps of the creek.

In 1852 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company began running its
main line
Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to:
Transportation
Railway
*Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system
*Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railway ...
along the left bank of the lower section of Turtle Creek in 1852.
In 1874 it acquired 215 acres of land for its Wall Yard (later known as Pitcairn Yard), construction of which would involve relocating much of Turtle Creek northward before the completion of the yards on the left bank of the creek in 1892. Sometime between 1903 and 1915 the creek was further diverted to straighten the tracks of the railroad on its right bank, where the
Westinghouse Interworks Railway
The Westinghouse Interworks Railway was a short line railroad that operated in the lower Turtle Creek (Monongahela River), Turtle Creek valley east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A subsidiary of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the railway us ...
company ran its trains. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also diverted the flow of the creek in the Blackburn neighborhood of Trafford, PA to create a
wye
Wye may refer to:
Place names
*Wye, Kent, a village in Kent, England
** Wye College, agricultural college, part of University of London before closure in 2009
**Wye School, serving the above village
** Wye railway station, serving the above villa ...
(pronounced like the letter "Y") to enable its trains to switch directions there. The pond formed by part of the old creek-bed eventually took a name derived from that of Blackburn's farm and this wye, "B-Y Pond".
Turtle Creek served as part of the political boundary between what were once North Versailles and Patton townships, as well as part of the boundary between Allegheny and Westmoreland Counties. When the flow-line of the creek was altered, the political divisions were not redrawn, and so some seemingly out of place borders now exist near the banks of Turtle Creek. For example: a portion of US Steel's
Edgar Thomson Works The Edgar Thomson Steel Works is a steel mill in the Pittsburgh area communities of Braddock and North Braddock, Pennsylvania, United States. It has been active since 1875. It is currently owned by U.S. Steel and is known as Mon Valley Works – Ed ...
which appears to be in North Braddock is actually in North Versailles. Businesses in Broadway Park on
PA Route 130
Pennsylvania Route 130 (PA 130) is a state highway located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny and Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania. The western terminus is at Pennsylvania Route 8, PA&nb ...
are also in North Versailles, but have addresses in Monroeville. The Pitcairn Intermodal Terminal (formerly Pitcairn Yard, and Wall Yard before that) lies in both Monroeville and North Versailles, but, ironically, not in Pitcairn. All American Park, a baseball and softball complex built at a former Westinghouse site in Trafford, has some fields which straddle the Allegheny / Westmoreland County border.
Westinghouse Dams
By 1908, no fewer than two dams were known to exist on Turtle Creek; both were built at water intakes for industrial facilities. One was at the Westinghouse Machine Company in East Pittsburgh; it was described as being low and not appreciably obstructing the flow of the stream.
The Trafford dam, located just upstream of Turtle Creek's confluence with Brush Creek, was more imposing, once standing at eight feet tall and 50 feet wide in the shadow of the bridge which carried
PA Route 130
Pennsylvania Route 130 (PA 130) is a state highway located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny and Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland counties in Pennsylvania. The western terminus is at Pennsylvania Route 8, PA&nb ...
.
When the Westinghouse plant in Trafford closed, the nearby dam had outlived its original purpose. The water which pooled around the dam had found use as a swimming hole by those who would break through the fence around it, and this was considered a potential drowning hazard, in part due to the currents which could form around the dam. The dam was also hazardous to fish and other aquatic life, promoting a rise in water temperature which causes a decrease in its dissolved oxygen, while physically impeding the migration of fish up and down the stream. It not only blocked the travel of fish, but also that of local canoeists, who described the dam as "dangerous, unrunnable and unportageable".
The Trafford dam was finally removed in September 2013.
Flood Control

Because of their relatively low elevation with respect to that of the Monongahela river, the Westinghouse facilities in East Pittsburgh and Turtle Creek were vulnerable to back water flooding, when the waters of the Monongahela reach such a height as to cause water to back up into the Turtle Creek channel. This happened multiple times, notably during the
Great St. Patrick's Day flood of 1936. The Westinghouse Floodgate project was constructed from 1937 to 1938 for the purpose of blocking similar floods from backing up into the Turtle Creek channel.
The project consisted of two adjoining floodgates, one 80x30 foot gate which could be lowered to block the creek itself, and an adjoining 40x20 foot gate that would be simultaneously block (Old) Braddock Avenue, which runs parallel to Turtle Creek in its floodplain. On the left bank of the creek next to the gates stands a gatehouse/pump-house, which held three 5000 hp pumps capable of pumping 7500 cubic feet of water downstream per second in the event that the gates needed to be lowered. The height of the gates meant that they could withstand backwater from the Monongahela river as long as the river surface remained below 750 feet above sea level.
In 1999 the Turtle Creek Valley Council of Governments determined that operating and maintaining the facility placed too great a financial burden upon the boroughs of Wilmerding, Turtle Creek and East Pittsburgh.
Photos taken in 2013 indicate the floodgate facility is no longer being maintained.

While the Westinghouse Floodgates would protect the lower Turtle Creek Valley from backwater flooding from the Monongahela River downstream, it was not designed to protect from flash flooding pouring down from tributaries upstream. Flash floods in 1911, 1942 and 1950 all deposited rain at a rate which exceeded the capacity of Turtle Creek to drain it.,
and in October 1954 the remnants of
Hurricane Hazel
Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest, second costliest, and most intense hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm killed at least 469 people in Haiti before striking the United States near the border between North and Sou ...
caused what was then the flood of record by attempting to discharge 12,300 cubic feet of water per second (cfs) through a Turtle Creek channel which had a drainage capacity of only 5100 cfs, overflowing its banks and causing an estimated $13 million in damages. The following year the Turtle Creek District Flood Authority was organized, which would work with the Army Corps of Engineers on a massive channelization project whose design and construction would continue into the next decade.
From its confluence with Brush Creek in Trafford to a point 2.2 miles downstream, Turtle Creek would be channelized to the extent needed to accommodate a flow equal to that caused by Hazel.
For the 3.8 miles downstream to the river the channel would be further improved with stone and concrete walls and a similarly lined bottom, affording a 20,000 cfs capacity for this more heavily developed, lowest section of the creek. Construction of the concrete channel lining was completed in 1967, and control was turned over to the local flood authority who is expected to maintain the channel at its constructed drainage capacity by occasionally removing accumulation of sediment, vegetation and other debris.
The channel proved adequate to discharge the rainfall caused by the remnants of
Hurricane Agnes
Hurricane Agnes in 1972 was the costliest hurricane to hit the United States at the time, causing an estimated $2.1 billion in damage. The hurricane's death toll was 128. The effects of Agnes were widespread, from the Caribbean to Canada, ...
in June 1972 (13,200 cfs at East Pittsburgh),
Hurricane Ivan
Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atl ...
in September 2004 (9760 cfs at Wilmerding), and a non tropical cyclone-related flash flood in June 2009 (10,100 cfs at Wilmerding).

The June 2009 flood not only damaged the Thompson Run valley, but also flooded parts of Turtle Creek several miles upstream of the concrete-lined lower section. The town of Export, which the upper section of Turtle Creek flows through, sustained nearly $2 million in damages from this flood alone.
Construction on its flood control system began in 2010,
and work on the $9.8 million project was completed in the fall of 2012.
The completed project begins just upstream of Puckety Drive, with a levee near the eastern edge of the Dura-Bond steel tube coating facility. The levee contains a small removable gate though which the tracks of the company's
Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad
The Turtle Creek Industrial Railroad was a short line railroad, short line freight railroad that operated in western Pennsylvania between the boroughs of Export, Pennsylvania, Export and Trafford, Pennsylvania, Trafford, where it connected to ...
pass, though the railroad's services were halted due to damage from the 2009 flood and it would never resume regular operation. The levee directs Turtle Creek into a concrete channel that runs beneath the road and continues for 1315 feet.
At this point low flow waters are allowed into the natural Turtle Creek stream channel alongside Old William Penn Highway, while excess flow is directed underground through an additional 2905 feet of culvert to rejoin the meandering stream on the west side of Export. Initially, a second phase of construction with additional protective elements was planned,
which was needed for "full 100-year protection",
but state officials later decided that the second phase was not necessary and the protection from a "50 year storm" provided by phase 1 of the project would suffice.
See also
*
List of rivers of Pennsylvania
This is a list of streams and rivers in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name.
Delaware Bay
Chesapeake Bay
*' ...
References
External links
*
*
{{authority control
Rivers of Pennsylvania
Tributaries of the Monongahela River
Rivers of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Rivers of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Allegheny Plateau