Fort Duquesne, a French fort built in 1754 at the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers form the Ohio River. It was on the present site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the opening of the French and Indian War the British began to build a fort here, but the French captured the site and built Fort Duquesne. In 1755 a British force led by General Edward Braddock was ambushed nearby. The French burned Fort Duquesne in 1758 in their retreat from the British, who rebuilt it as Fort Pitt. While the French held this site they controlled the entire Ohio Valley.