Fort Duquesne

Fort Duquesne

Fort Duquesne was a fort located in what is now Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The British tried to wrest control of the area from the French for the security of English settlers in western Pennsylvania and Virginia and for control of transportation on the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. They sent 41 Virginians to build Fort Prince George in 1754. This fort was never completed because when the French, who controlled the Ohio at the time, got word of the construction they sent in a large force to capture the fort. The French then resumed building the incomplete fort and renamed it to Fort Duquesne.

The French held Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War. It became one of the focal points for that war because of its location in disputed territory. The French held the fort successfully early in the war, turning back the Braddock Expedition led by General Edward Braddock. Three years later on November 25, 1758, the British Forbes Expedition under General John Forbes captured the site after the French destroyed Fort Duquesne the day before. They rebuilt it and renamed it Fort Pitt.

The Fort was located at the junction of the two rivers that form the Ohio River, on about the site of today's Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.