If Pittsburgh knows anything, it's how to build trails.

We have trails through parks, trails on railroad beds, trails through woods and trails along hillsides. As of yesterday's ribbon-cutting, the city now has an impressive trail that not only offers a good walk or bike ride along the Mononghahela River but also beautifies a famous parking lot and is braced for the occasional flood.

Since the Mon Wharf Landing trail is Downtown, in full view of travelers emerging from the Fort Pitt Tunnel and skyline fanciers on Mount Washington, then so much the better.

After nine months of construction, the 2,017-foot promenade of concrete and bluestone formally debuted amid plantings of native trees and grasses. It comes at a cost of $3 million from state, federal and foundation sources and the loss of 150 of the wharf's 700 parking spaces.

That's a small price to pay for a permanent facelift on a watery fringe of the Golden Triangle and for a chance to complete the Great Allegheny Passage, part of the 335-mile path between Washington, D.C., and Point State Park. Key links remain to be built at both ends of the wharf trail.

Riverlife, the advocacy group that strives to reconnect the city to its rivers, spearheaded the project as part of its ambitious Three Rivers Park plan. With another 2,000 feet in place, this trail leads to only one place: a better Pittsburgh.

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.