Why does every old Pennsylvania home have a basement toilet?
It’s History12 Maalis

Why does every old Pennsylvania home have a basement toilet?

Across America’s Rust Belt, many older homes feature a unique fixture known as the "Pittsburgh Potty," a solitary toilet located in an unfinished basement, often lacking privacy. This unusual setup has gained attention online, but its origins are rooted in practicality. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cities like Pittsburgh adopted combined sewer systems that regularly backed up during heavy rain. To prevent sewage from invading finished living spaces, architects installed a toilet at the lowest point in the home. This design allowed the toilet to overflow first. Additionally, this basement toilet provided a place for steelworkers and miners to clean off industrial grime before entering their homes. The Pittsburgh Potty has evolved from a plumbing solution into a symbol of working-class life in America’s industrial heartland. #Pittsburgh #RustBelt #AmericanHistory Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jaksot(559)

Why Canada's Abandoned City Was Taken Over by Bitcoin | Ocean Falls

Why Canada's Abandoned City Was Taken Over by Bitcoin | Ocean Falls

At its peak, Ocean Falls was a self-sufficient community in British Columbia, featuring a 600-bed hotel, an Olympic-caliber indoor pool, and a pulp mill that powered everything. However, when the mill...

14 Huhti 13min

New York’s Lost Double-Decker Elevated Trains

New York’s Lost Double-Decker Elevated Trains

Before the subway tunneled beneath Manhattan, New York’s transit network featured an extraordinary system of double-decker elevated railways. This episode explores the forgotten story of stacked stati...

12 Huhti 22min

Why 8-Mile Wall is Totally Forbidden

Why 8-Mile Wall is Totally Forbidden

Running across Detroit’s northern edge, 8 Mile has a complex history linked to surveys, treaties, and housing maps that transformed it into a notorious dividing line. In 1941, developers erected a six...

11 Huhti 19min

Why Toronto’s Airport Was Built Around a Cemetery

Why Toronto’s Airport Was Built Around a Cemetery

For decades, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport housed a 19th-century Catholic cemetery, the resting place of early settlers from the now-vanished village of Elmbank. This cemetery, fenced off an...

10 Huhti 19min

Why This California City Built 500 Miles of Roads to Nowhere

Why This California City Built 500 Miles of Roads to Nowhere

In the Mojave Desert, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles, lies California City—a vast urban experiment designed for nearly half a million residents but now home to fewer than 15,000. This stark ...

9 Huhti 13min

Why This Illinois City Built a Gate to Seal Itself Off

Why This Illinois City Built a Gate to Seal Itself Off

At the southern tip of Illinois, where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers converge, lies the city of Cairo, which once depended on the Big Subway Gate for flood defense. This massive iron barrier was des...

8 Huhti 14min

Why San Francisco’s Treasure Island is Radioactive

Why San Francisco’s Treasure Island is Radioactive

In the middle of San Francisco Bay sits an island that did not even exist a century ago. Built from dredged sand and rock in the 1930s, Treasure Island was created as the dazzling home of the 1939 Gol...

7 Huhti 11min

Why Niagara Falls Was Turned Off

Why Niagara Falls Was Turned Off

In 1969, engineers performed the unprecedented act of turning off Niagara Falls, leaving the American Falls as a dry cliff face for several months. This episode explores the surprising findings uncove...

5 Huhti 16min

Suosittua kategoriassa Historia

olipa-kerran-otsikko
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
mayday-fi
huijarit
mystista
rss-ikiuni
tsunami
konginkangas
totuus-vai-salaliitto
rouva-diktaattori
rss-subjektiivinen-todistaja
rss-i-dont-like-mondays-2
rss-peter-peter
rss-sattuu-sita-suomessakin
sotaa-ja-historiaa-podi
historiaa-suomeksi
rss-kirkon-ihmeellisimmat-tarinat
maailmanpuu
apinan-vuosi
tiedetta-ja-sirkushuveja-vanhojen-aikojen-podcast