Fort Duquesne Fort Duquesne ( , ; originally called " Fort Du Quesne " ) was a fort established by the French in 1754 , at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh in the U . S . state of Pennsylvania . It was destroyed and replaced by Fort Pitt in 1758 ; over two centuries later , the site formerly occupied by Fort Duquesne is now Point State Park . Background . Fort Duquesne , built at a point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together to form the Ohio River , was long seen as important for controlling the Ohio Country , both for settlement and for trade . Englishman William Trent had established a highly successful trading post at the forks as early as the 1740s , to do business with a number of nearby Native American villages . Both the French and the British were keen to gain advantage in the area . As the area was within the drainage basin of the Mississippi River , the French claimed it as theirs . Many of the charters of the British colonies on the east coast of North America granted land indefinitely to the west , setting the scene for conflict . In the early 1750s , the French commenced construction of a line of forts , starting with Fort Presque Isle on Lake Erie near present - day Erie , Pennsylvania , followed by Fort Le Boeuf , about 15 miles inland near present - day Waterford , and Fort Machault , on the Allegheny River in Venango County in present - day Franklin . Lieutenant Governor of the Virginia Colony , Robert Dinwiddie , saw this as threatening to the extensive claims to land in the area by Virginians ( including himself ) . In late autumn 1753 , Dinwiddie dispatched a young envoy named George Washington to the area to deliver a letter to the French commander , asking them to leave , and to assess French strength and intentions . Washington reached Fort Le Boeuf in December and was politely rebuffed by the French . Fort ' s construction and replacement . Following Washington ' s return to Virginia in January 1754 , Dinwiddie sent Virginians to build Fort Prince George at the forks . Work began on the fort on February 17 . By April 18 , a much larger French force of five hundred strong arrived at the forks , forcing the small British garrison there to surrender . The French knocked down the tiny British fort and built Fort Duquesne , named in honor of Marquis Duquesne , the governor - general of New France . The fort was built on the same model as Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario . Even though location at the Forks of the Ohio looked strong on paper — it controlled the confluence of three rivers — the reality was rather different . The site was low , swampy , and prone to flooding . In addition , the position was dominated by highlands located directly across the Monongahela River , which would allow an enemy to bombard the fort with ease . The Canadien commander , Claude - Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecœur , was preparing to abandon the fort in the face of Braddock ' s advance in 1755 , and was only saved when the advancing British force was annihilated ( see below ) . When the Forbes expedition approached in 1758 , the French were not as lucky . Washington , who had been promoted to Lt . Colonel of the newly created Virginia Regiment , left on April 2 as part of a small force with the dual purpose of constructing a road and defending the fort upon their arrival . Washington was at Wills Creek in south central Pennsylvania when he received news of the surrender of Fort Prince George . On May 25 , Washington assumed command of the expedition upon the death of Colonel Joshua Fry . Two days later , Washington encountered a Canadian scouting party near a place now known as Jumonville Glen ( several miles east of present - day Uniontown ) . Washington attacked the Canadians killing 10 in the early morning hours , and took 21 prisoners , of whom many were killed by the Natives . He then ordered construction of Fort Necessity at a large clearing known as the Great Meadows . On July 3 , the counterattacking French and Canadians forced Washington to surrender Fort Necessity but allowed Washington and his men to return home without their armaments . The French held Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War , and it became one of the focal points for that war because of its strategic location . The French held the fort successfully early in the war , turning back the expedition led by General Edward Braddock . George Washington served as one of General Braddock ' s aides . A smaller attack by James Grant in September 1758 was repulsed with heavy losses . Two months later , on November 25 , the Forbes Expedition under General John Forbes captured the site after the French destroyed Fort Duquesne the day before . The British built a much larger fort on the site , and named it Fort Pitt . Present - day site . Fort Duquesne was located where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet to form the Ohio . The location in downtown Pittsburgh is now known as Point State Park or " the Point . " The park includes a brick outline of the fort ' s walls . In May 2007 , Thomas Kutys , an archaeologist with A . D . Marble & Company , a Cultural Resource Management firm based in Conshohocken , Pennsylvania , rediscovered a stone and brick drain thought to have drained one of the fort ' s many buildings . Due to its depth in the ground , this drain may be all of the fort that has survived . The entire northern half of the site the fort is thought to have occupied was destroyed by the heavy industrial usage of the area in the 19th century .