Nellie Bly Statue Joining Franco, George Washington At Airport

FINDLAY TOWNSHIP, PA - For years, statues of famed Steelers running back Franco Harris and Founding Father George Washington have greeted travelers at Pittsburgh International Airport. The duo is about to become a trio, as the Allegheny County Airport Authority and the Senator John Heinz History Center are partnering to add a new statue - investigative journalist Nellie Bly.

The statue will be installed in the airside terminal later this month.

“We’re pleased to recognize Nellie Bly’s important historical accomplishments, particularly during Women’s History Month, as part of our arts and culture program at Pittsburgh International Airport,” Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis said in a statement. “Sense of place is important and we’re looking forward to our latest addition next to Franco and George from our partners at the Heinz History Center.”

The history center offered this biography of the woman who will join Harris, who participated in the Immaculate Reception - a play voted by fans as the greatest in NFL history earlier this year - and Washington, the nation's first president:

Born as Elizabeth Jane Cochran near present-day Burrell Township in Armstrong County, she began a career in journalism as a teenager. While a reporter for the Pittsburgh Dispatch, she took Nellie Bly as her pen name.

Bly rose to fame as a reporter for the New York World, when she went undercover as a patient at the Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum and pioneered a new era of investigative journalism. A series of stories, which later became a book, documented her shocking experience in the asylum.

Arguably, her most popular piece came in 1889, when she decided to travel the world faster than novelist Jules Verne’s character Phileas Fogg in “Around the World in Eighty Days.” The world rejoiced as Bly successfully returned from her journey on Jan. 25, 1890 – 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds after her departure – beating the fictional record by more than a week.

Bly temporarily retired from journalism in 1895 but returned during World War I to become one of America’s first female war correspondents.

“Pittsburgher Nellie Bly was the world’s greatest traveler who made history as an innovative journalist and staunch advocate for women’s rights,” said Senator John Heinz History Center President and CEO Andy Masich. “It’s fitting that we’ll honor her legacy with a new lifelike

figure where millions of travelers can learn her story.”