Pennsylvania
From World travel guide
Pennsylvania is a state in the eastern United States. It is known for its revolutionary war era historical sites (mainly in Philadelphia) and its steel industry.
Contents |
Regions
- Steel belt -- the area around the city of Pittsburgh
- Susquehanna Valley -- the area in the south central portion of the state
- Tri-Cities -- Harrisburg, Lancaster, York
Cities
- Harrisburg -- the state capital
- Altoona
- Erie
- Kutztown
- Johnstown
- Lancaster
- Pittsburgh
- Philadelphia
- Reading
- Scranton
- State College
- Wilkes-Barre
- York
Other destinations
- Chadds Ford near the location of the Battle of Brandywine, fought September 11, 1777.
- Jim Thorpe
- Pocono Mountains
Understand
The State of Pennsylvania is a geographically diverse state with a great lake on one shore and a major seaport on the other. The climate of Pennsylvania is pleasant, with cold winters, mild to hot summers, and gorgeous springtimes.
Pennsylvania hosts a number of vital cities, from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. The city of Philadelphia houses the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, two major national historical landmarks. The interior of the state has a number of subcultures worth exploring, including the famous Amish countryside, a religious community based in Christian Anabaptist dogma.
Pennsylvania is also host to a diverse group of people, with ethnic enclaves of black, Hispanic, and Southeast Asian populations in its major cities.
Talk
Most Pennsylvanians speak American English, although many subtle regional accents and 'dialects' do exist. There are large Latino, Spanish-speaking populations in Reading, Allentown, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia, and Philadelphia and Pittsburg have their share of Asian, European, and other languages. There will be no problem communicating with people who live in Pennsylvania, except, of course, if they resort to the famous Pennsylvania Dutch "Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch" dialect of German. Although widescale non-Amish use of the language faded circa 1950, there are pockets of young people who are learning the language as a way to preserve their heratige.
Get in
By car
Interstate highways lead most traffic into the state.
- I-70, traffic from the midwest
- I-78, traffic from New Jersey and New York City
- I-80, traffic from New York
- I-79, traffic from the Great Lakes region and West Virginia through Pittsburgh
- I-83, traffic from Baltimore
- I-76, the Pennsylvania Turnpike
- I-95, traffic from Washington DC and New York
- I-90, traffic from Cleveland to Buffalo through Erie
There also exist a huge network or backroads, state highways, and private roads that stretch along it's mostly forested and farmed rural areas. Speed limit signs are almost exclusively posted in Imperial units. To out-of-staters many of the roads in the mountainous areas of the state are treacherously winding, curving, and narrow; however, this barely slows down many of the native drivers in this area.
As conditions go, there's an old joke that Pennsylvania roads have two seasons; winter and construction. This is true for much of the state, where blizzards, ice, and excesive snowfall can 'snow in' many rural inhabitants and render many backroads impassable. It's advisable to use extreme caution after even a relatively light snow, and out of state drivers should stick to more well-travelled state roads and interstates.
By train
Amtrak serves the state of Pennsylvania with major stops at Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh. Philadelphia is a stop on the Northeast Corridor.
By air
The two major airports in Pennsylvania are Philadelphia International (booking code PHL) and Pittsburgh International (booking code PIT). Philadelphia is a major hub for US Airways and Pittsburgh is an large focus city for the same carrier. Both are served by all major carriers and have low fare service by Southwest and AirTran Airways. Philadelphia also gets a good deal of international service.
Regional airports in Pennsylvania include Lehigh Valley, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Erie. All of these airports are served by US Airways, US Airways Express, Delta, Northwest and Continental. Lehigh Valley has low-fare service by Lehigh Valley Air and TMA, and Harrisburg has service by TMA as well(TMA suspended flights in 2005).
Get around
Eat
Drink
Stay safe
Get out
External links
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