Brunot Island is a 129 acre (0.52204494 km²) island in the Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

 at the west end of Pittsburgh in Allegheny County

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Allegheny County is a county in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,223,348; making it the second most populous county in Pennsylvania, following Philadelphia County. The county seat is Pittsburgh...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was named for Dr. Felix Brunot who settled the island with his extended family in the late 1700s.http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Hs40SqVO0tIJ:www.heinzhistorycenter.org/secondary.aspx%3Fid%3D55%26contentID%3D494+lewis+and+clark+pittsburgh+1803&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiPP2H7MEk7K8VINv8XQ0R4_gfv-abmcUwhmM4BHIye7up3Cf2BQgWhGAepUQDGk_Y_ljhM57MzjJFozGtijoN-vkPszpY1JuKBVpAR-sf8hJZsukRAnxGNYO5cE4UcP6gDRqc3&sig=AHIEtbSCubTHn2lUz2h2yZ9kTwIlt5lwxA. The family entertained the Lewis & Clark expedition on the island in August 1803. The island is home to the Brunot Island Generating Station, a 315 MW fossil fuel power plant

Fossil fuel power plant

A fossil-fuel power station is a power station that burns fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas or petroleum to produce electricity. Central station fossil-fuel power plants are designed on a large scale for continuous operation...

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The Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge

Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge

The Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge is a steel bridge which crosses the Ohio River at Brunot's Island at the west end of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA...

 crosses the Ohio River at the island. The island does not otherwise connect to the land, and all vehicular traffic must use a ferry to access the island. The employees of the power plant use a pedestrian walkway on the railroad bridge to go to work.

From 1903 to 1914, the island was the home of Brunots Island Race Track

Brunots Island Race Track

Brunots Island Race Track was a one-mile dirt oval on Brunot Island in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It hosted races from 1903 to 1914, including a race in 1905 AAA Championship Car season won by Louis Chevrolet. It is now the site of a fossil-fuel power plant....

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Brunot Island Generating Station

• Type: Fossil fuel; oil and natural gas
• Net capacity: 315 MW (megawatts)
• Began operation: 1972
• Current owner: DQE Holdings, Inc.
  DQE
  DQE Holdings is a traditional utility company based in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company provides electric power to much of metro Pittsburgh, competing with longtime rival Allegheny Power and has extended its services into northern West Virginia and eastern Ohio...
  
  

Plants

• Three oil-fired simple cycle peaking power plants
  Simple cycle peaking power plants
  Simple cycle peaking power plants, also known as peaker plants, are power plants that generally run only when there is a high demand, known as peak demand, for electricity.See also: simple cycle combustion turbine....
  
  
  • Total generating capacity: 53 MW
• One natural-gas-fired combined cycle
  Combined cycle
  In electric power generation a combined cycle is an assembly of heat engines that work in tandem off the same source of heat, converting it into mechanical energy, which in turn usually drives electrical generators...
  
  power plant
  • Total generating capacity: 262 MW