“All global waters are our bathtub.”

The duck is in Pittsburgh, floating on the Allegheny River right by the Point, where the Allegheny and Monongahela converge to create the Ohio River. And as the artist Florentijn Hofman said of the project, people have come together to look, to talk and to engage opinions. Considering the multitude of cultures in this city between the universities, high-tech companies and the health care industry, it also achieves his goal of bringing world cultures together.

Also, each city the duck visits builds its own duck. Our duck was fabricated by an inflatables company in Ohio, and the pontoon structure was made just north of Pittsburgh in Newcastle.

Especially on rivers that were once sludgy with pollution Hofman’s point of our global waters being our bathtub is well taken. How many people know where their water comes from? How many people in Pittsburgh know our water comes from our three rivers? We do indeed bathe in this river, and the substances we drain into it flows downstream for others to use as their bathtub after us.

Below, in the city that gave us Mister Rogers, it’s just a beautiful day in the neighborhood, with a big yellow rubber ducky on the river. Read more in the Post-Gazette.