Photo of the Day: David McCullough Bridge, Pittsburgh

Two years ago, when I happened to be overnight visiting in town, one of Pittsburgh’s greatest bridges was renamed in honor of one of its most famous sons. The 16st Bridge was rechristened the David McCullough Bridge, in honor of the great historian-biographer (Harry Truman, John Adams, and The Great Bridge, about the Brooklyn Bridge). The ceremony took place on his 80^th birthday. I took this photo that weekend, on the day before the big event.

This became the fourth major bridge across the Allegheny River renamed after a famous person connected to the city, following baseball great Roberto Clemente, artist Andy Warhol and environmental pioneer Rachel Carson.

“I learned how to tell a story at my family’s dinner table in Pittsburgh,” McCullough told Marc Myers of The Wall Street Journal back in May, “where my parents and my maternal grandmother told stories about World War I, the city’s terrible floods, violent labor strikes and family eccentrics. I listened carefully and wound up with an appreciation for history.”