But there are plenty of reasons to visit Pittsburgh, which has transformed itself from a sooty industrial blight into an inviting city of technology and finance.

Less than a decade ago, Glasgow, with close to a million people, was still battered by industrial blight, economic decline and an image as a tough, slum-ridden city.

"Critics say the turnpike is ugly, heavy with truck traffic, and cuts through urban wastelands and industrial blight."

In recent years, the Georgetown waterfront has been redeveloped from industrial blight to a thriving commercial and residential destination.

Its outskirts, as in many towns in the former East Germany, were brown with industrial blight.

Their trade was soon to collapse, for Napoleon's invasion wrecked all (though it saved Segovia from industrial blight), and the population dwindled from 30,000 to 9,000.

Cleared of industrial blight, the dramatic beauty of its natural setting - dominated by converging rivers, wooded ridges and deep hollows - has reasserted itself.

Though unemployment remains a worry, the city has been tackling longtime problems of inner city decay, industrial blight and violence.

The one remaining major industrial blight is the million-square-foot, nine-story Alcoa Aluminum building overlooking the river.

During the later courses of the 20th century, as Pittsburgh experienced dramatic industrial blight and net population decreases, the term Yinzer faded from common use.