You might think that the start of all this would have been the Pittsburgh Steelers, or the Pirates, (the Pens were light blue and tan back then, but have since come to their senses and adopted black and gold) Even though Steeler nation bleeds black and gold it actually started downtown on Summer day back in June 2008.

I was downtown waiting to cross the street at the corner of Smithfield and Sixth St. where the Burlington Coat Factory is. Lo and behold I saw four of those free periodical boxes. One was for The City Paper, one was for the Apartment Rental Guide, one was for Nightwire, and one was for Auto Mart. ALL FOUR were black and gold. There was also a black and gold fire hydrant in the vicinity. And a woman walked past me in all black and gold - this was summer and Steeler season didn't start for another 2 months. Right then and there i realized that these colors their relationship with Pittsburgh was much bigger than i previously thought.

I began taking photos to document these colors occurring in unexpected places. We all expect black and gold to be front and center at Steelers, Pirates, and Pens games - but what about when it's the colors of the Police uniform? Marching bands? The city flag? How about no-parking signs? Fire hydrants? Tortilla chips, underpasses, public notices, menus, doughnuts, cookies, bridges, sandbags, playgrounds, wire grips, bus seats, porches, front doors, cars, and MORE?

I learned that Pittsburgh's black and gold fever goes back to over a century ago. There was a decree that the town of Pittsburg(h) would *officially* be a black and gold burgh. According to some, we used to even have brightly colored black and gold fire trucks, but that was way before my time. So anyway, thanks for reading and please enjoy my photos of Pittsburgh in all of it's black and gold glory.