So, he changed his plans and added the pointy spire as a message to the City. The architect had designed it so that the building itself was supposed to be as tall as the spire is now, but the City changed its mind and wouldn't let him build that high. Our excellent guide, Andrew, told us a funny story about the construction of the Highmark Building. It was not intended to keep boats safe but rather planes. ![]() The Grant Building is considered a lighthouse because of the light on top of it. “Thank God he was there - in the right place, at the right time.We took the one-hour sightseeing cruise and, even though I have lived in Pittsburgh my whole life, I learned something new. When he sees a problem, he works to solve it. “To be honest, most of our captains would’ve done the same thing,” McCue said. “I make sure the stars who’ve never held a gun or seen a pair of handcuffs can look like they’re 20-year department veterans,” he said. He also helps transform actors into reliable cops. In addition to the pleasure cruises, McCue advises screenwriters on Pittsburgh-shot TV shows who are trying to get police jargon right. “That is just Jason,” said McCue, 52, of Eighty-Four, Washington County.īefore tiki boats, McCue worked as a police officer in various South Hills forces and retired in 2017. He simply didn’t see it he was busy checking email on his cellphone. The man, on his lunch break in Point State Park, walked unknowingly right into the Allegheny River. Saturday was not the first time Ruhle has jumped into the river to save someone.Īround the time Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh started, Ruhle saved a North Shore office worker from drowning, he said. They run their two-hour charter cruises seven days a week from May through October. Ruhle and two partners - Dale McCue and Joa Campise - started Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh in 2018, he said.įor five years, Ruhle said he and his baker’s dozen of captains have been taking Pittsburghers and tourists alike up and down the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers on octagon-shaped tiki boats, each one equipped with a bar. ![]() He got his captain’s license about 15 years ago after training with a Beaver County company. Ruhle still lives near where he grew up in Shaler and has always gravitated to the water. “It was nothing fancy for me,” Ruhle told the Trib. Ruhle said the whole ordeal was really no big deal. “He was soaking wet but he just kept going.” “And he had two more tours after our boat!” Gdovic said, while laughing. Ruhle, now soaked, got back on the tiki boat and continued the tour. The boy probably would’ve drowned if it weren’t for Jason.” “Without hesitation, he jumped into the water and pulled up that kid. “Jason was fun on the trip, laid back - but when he went in to save that boy, it was intense,” said Gdovic, a Jefferson Hills resident who turns 50 this week. Pittsburgh Public Safety spokesperson Cara Cruz told the Trib this week she had no record of the incident. The boy and his family quickly scurried out of the park before first responders were called. “It all happened so fast - the whole thing probably lasted 30 seconds,” he said. Ruhle, fully clothed, jumped in, grabbed the boy and pushed him onto the park’s riverbank. ![]() His blue backpack began to fill with water. “Next thing I knew, someone was in the river.”Ī young boy - Ruhle estimated he was about 5 years old - fell into the Allegheny River, which Ruhle said is about 12 feet deep near the lip of Point State Park. “Then, I heard a splash right next to me,” said Ruhle, 44, co-owner of Cruisin’ Tikis Pittsburgh. ![]() The dozen women celebrating Pam Gdovic’s 50th birthday walked off the tiki boats to snap some selfies at the park’s signature foundation. On a sunny summer afternoon, Shaler native Jason Ruhle was halfway through a two-hour cruise around the confluence of Pittsburgh’s three rivers, captaining 12 passengers on two tiki boats down the Allegheny River.
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