The Growth of Westinghouse Air Brake in pictures

In September 1869, George Westinghouse, then 23 years old, founded his Air Brake Company and built its first plant. As these historic photographs chronicle, the company grew dramatically over the next four decades.

The first factory of the Westinghouse Air Brake company on 2400 Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh circa 1870. The building is now home of the Pittsburgh Opera, as seen in the next image.

But over the next two decades, as Westinghouse Air Brakes gained acceptance around the country, the company outgrew this plant. In 1888, George Westinghouse decided to build an entirely new plant on acreage he bought in the Turtle Creek valley near where it emptied into the Monongahela River. To house plant workers, he established the borough of Wilmerding.

A winter view over Wilmerding circa 1890 and the start of the Westinghouse Airbrake’s second factory.

An 1895 plat map of the town of Wilerding.

Wilmerding and Westinghouse Air Brake have both grown dramatically in this 1905 photo.

A postcard view of the Westinghouse Air Brake Wilmerding plant in 1907.

Finally, this postcard from the Library of Congress shows the Westinghouse Air Brake works in Wilmerding, surrounded by the company’s facilities in Hanover, Germany; St. Louis, Missouri; London, England; St. Petersburg, Russia; Canada; and France.