Editing Brownsville, Pennsylvania (section)

==Geography==
Brownsville is located at {{coord|40|1|12|N|79|53|22|W|type:city}} (40.020026, −79.889536),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/geo/gazetteer-files.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=April 23, 2011|date=February 12, 2011|title=US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990}}</ref> situated on the east (convex) side of a broad sweeping westward bend in the northerly flowing [[Monongahela River]] on the northwestern edge of [[Fayette County, Pennsylvania|Fayette County]]. The river's action eroded the [[cut bank|steep-sided]] [[sandstone]] hills, creating shelf-like benches and connecting sloped terrain that gave the borough lowland areas adjacent to or otherwise accessible to the river shores. Much of the borough's residential buildings are built above the elevation of the business district.

The opposite river shore of [[Washington County, Pennsylvania|Washington County]] is, uncharacteristically for the region, shaped even lower to the water surface and is generally flatter. A small hamlet called [[West Brownsville, Pennsylvania|West Brownsville]] developed on the western shore, with a current population of 992. Historically the area was a natural [[Ford (crossing)|river crossing]], and it was the site of development of a [[ferry]], boat building and a bridge to carry roads. When the nascent United States government appropriated funds for its first road building project, in 1811 Brownsville was chosen as an early intermediate target destination along the new [[National Road]]. Until a bridge was built across the river, Brownsville was the western terminus.

[[Redstone Creek (Pennsylvania)|Redstone Creek]] is a local tributary stream of the [[Monongahela River]], entering just north of Brownsville. Its color came from the [[ferrous]] sandstone that lined its bed, as well as the sandstone heights near the Old Forts. The creek was wide enough for settlers to build, dock and outfit numerous [[flatboat]]s, [[keelboat]]s, and other river craft. Its builders made thousands of pole boats that moved the emigrants who settled the vast [[Northwest Territory]]. Later Brownsville industry built the first steamboats on the inland rivers, and many hundreds afterwards.{{citation needed|date=February 2012}}

Colonists used the term "Old Forts" for the mounds and earthworks created by the prehistoric [[Mound Builders]] cultures. [[Archeologist]]s and [[anthropologist]]s have since determined that many prehistoric Native American cultures in North America along the Mississippi River and its tributaries built massive earthworks for ceremonial, burial and religious purposes over a period of thousands of years prior to European encounter. For instance, the [[Mississippian culture]], reaching a peak about 1150 CE at [[Cahokia]] in present-day [[Illinois]], had sites throughout the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, and into the [[Southeastern United States|Southeast]]. Archaeological research is ongoing working to tie the local mounds and others regionally close to a particular era and culture.