Editing Fort Duquesne (section)

==Present-day site==
Fort Duquesne was built at the point of land of the confluence of the [[Allegheny River|Allegheny]] and [[Monongahela River|Monongahela]] Rivers, where they form the [[Ohio River]]. Since the late 20th century, this area of [[Downtown Pittsburgh]] has been preserved as [[Point State Park]]. The park includes a brick outline of the fort's walls, as well as outlines to mark the later Fort Pitt.

Archaeological observations and rescue excavations were undertaken at Point State Park in 2007 by A.D. Marble & Company, a Cultural Resource Management firm from eastern Pennsylvania. Two buried features were encountered in the vicinity of the site of Fort Duquesne that may relate to the fort. A stone-capped brick drain lay close to the location of a Fort Duquesne ravelin and was traced over a distance of 27 feet. One such conduit or drain was mentioned in 1754 construction accounts by Contrecoeur. The builder's trench (trench originally dug into subsoil to construct the drain) yielded only redeposited prehistoric artifacts and brick and mortar fragments, indicative of an early historic date of construction. Alternatively, it is possible the brick drain relates to later eighteenth or early nineteenth century occupation of the site.

The second feature was a refilled pit containing five archaeological strata to a depth of about three feet. These strata contained redeposited Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric artifacts and early historic objects that included three wrought iron nails, three small glass fragments, eight lead musket shot and one glass bead. Animal bones included those from deer, dog and cattle (or possibly bison). The early historic date of this pit and its location south of Fort Duquesne argue for association with the fort. The pit may on the other hand be a remnant of the "epaulement" (presumably earthen outwork) constructed west of Fort Pitt shown on the 1761 Bernard Ratzer map. 

Data from the archaeological project strongly suggest that two to three feet of original lower terrace surface may have been removed across this portion of the park, which would probably have destroyed most of the ditch that once surrounded Fort Duquesne. Traces of fort elements that extended more deeply into the ground such as large vertical posts that formed the western half of the fort walls in addition to magazines and drains are more likely to have survived.<ref>Blades et al. 2009</ref>