Western Pennsylvania consists of the western third of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Pittsburgh is the largest city in the region, with a metropolitan area population of about 2. A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large Metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central 4 million people, and serves as its economic and cultural center. Erie, Altoona, and Johnstown are its other large urban centers. Altoona is a city in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, miles east of Pittsburgh
Although the Commonwealth does not designate Western Pennsylvania as an official region, since colonial times it has retained a distinct identity not only because its geographical distance from Philadelphia, the beginning of Pennsylvania settlement, but especially because of its topographical separation from the east by virtue of the Appalachian Mountains, which characterize so much of the western region. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə The Appalachian Mountains ( often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. In the 1700s this separateness caused some to rally for the formation of a 14th state here dubbed Westsylvania. Westsylvania was a proposed state of the United States located primarily in what is now Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Since at least the early 20th century scholarly books such as Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press (1938), formally define the region as the 26 counties west of a meridian from the north at McKean County down and along McKean's eastern border and ending in the south at Bedford County. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American University press that is part of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Year 1938 ( MCMXXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. McKean County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Bedford County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania.
In alpha order those counties are Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Somerset, Venango, Warren, Washington, and Westmoreland. Allegheny County is a County in the southwestern part of the U Armstrong County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Beaver County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Blair County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Butler County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania and part of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. Cambria County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Cameron County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Clarion County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Pittsburgh DMA. Clearfield County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Crawford County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Elk County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Erie County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Fayette County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Forest County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Greene County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Pittsburgh DMA. Indiana County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Jefferson County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Lawrence County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Mercer County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Somerset County is a County located in the state of Pennsylvania. Venango County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Warren County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. Washington County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. Westmoreland County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2000 census the region's population is nearly 4 million.
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Description
Long recognized as a powerhouse of American industry, Western Pennsylvania is a large geophysical and socio-economic entity. It encompasses that portion of the state to the west of the Appalachian divide and included within the Mississippi drainage system of rivers.
The largest rivers in this area are the Allegheny River, which flows southward from the New York border, and the Monongahela River, which flows northward from West Virginia. The Allegheny River is a principal Tributary of the Ohio River and is located in the Eastern United States. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous The Monongahela River (məˌnɒŋɡəˈheɪlə also known locally as the Mon /ˈmɒn/ is a River on the Allegheny Plateau in North-Central West Virginia ( is a state in the Appalachian Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by These two rivers meet in Downtown Pittsburgh and join to form the Ohio River, which from that point flows an additional 981 miles southwest to the Mississippi River. Downtown Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, officially called the Golden Triangle or Central Business District, specifically referring to the view of Downtown The Ohio River is the largest Tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River is the second longest River in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to The juncture of the Allegheny and Monongahela was historically regarded as strategic and the gateway to the interior of the continent from the east. At various times this juncture has been called the Forks of the Ohio, Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt, the Golden Triangle, and today, at its apex, Point State Park. Fort Duquesne (originally called Fort Du Quesne) was a Fort established by the French in 1754, at the junction of the Allegheny Point State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on in Downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA at the confluence Incredibly, after several decades of border war and 150 years of high-rent city-center urbanization, the original 1764 blockhouse from Fort Pitt still stands here and is one of the oldest buildings in the region. Other notable rivers are the Youghiogheny River, flowing north from West Virginia and western Maryland to join the Monongahela just upriver of Pittsburgh, and which was the early route of penetration into Western Pennsylvania, the Kiskiminetas River, French Creek, Pennsylvania, a major passageway between Lake Erie and the Allegheny River for the Indians and early French explorers and traders, and the small Oil Creek in Crawford County, where slicks gave an indication of petroleum reserves and in whose watershed the first oil well in the USA was drilled. The Youghiogheny River, or the Yough River for short is a Tributary of the Monongahela River, approximately 122 mi (195 km A former pioneer fort at The Kiskiminetas River (called the Kiski for short is a Tributary of the Allegheny River, approximately long in western Pennsylvania in the French Creek may refer to Political Divisions French Creek New York French Creek Township Pennsylvania French Creek
The highest point in Western Pennsylvania is Mount Davis at 3,213 feet, where the Appalachian Mountains enter Pennsylvania from the south. Mount Davis is the highest Mountain in Pennsylvania, located in the 5685 acre (23 The Appalachian Mountains ( often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. To the west and north of this point lies the Allegheny Plateau, a dissected plateau so eroded that it appears to be an interminable series of high hills and steep valleys. The Allegheny Plateau is a large Dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia A dissected plateau is a Plateau area that has been uplifted then severely eroded so that the relief is sharp The peaks in the area are among the lowest in the East Coast highlands, but what they lack in height they make up in wide extent of land covered, which forms a vast formable barrier for mile upon mile to overland travel from the coast.
Distinctiveness
Western Pennsylvania is distinctive from the rest of the state due to several important and complex factors, such as:
- The initial difficulty of transportation access from the east across miles of seemingly endless parallel ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, and then the broken hills and valleys of the Allegheny Plateau, all of which were covered in thick forests. The Allegheny Plateau is a large Dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia Indeed the initial method of access was to go out of Pennsylvania altogether, follow the Potomac River northwest through Maryland and Virginia, and then re-enter the state in its southwest corner. Various methods of more direct transport were later tried, including a canal system over the Appalachians and then, later, the Pennsylvania Railroad which extended the railroad systems of the East Coast west to Pittsburgh and the Ohio Valley. The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Railroad, founded in 1846 Perhaps the best known transportation innovation to simplify access to this area is the famous Pennsylvania Turnpike, the first modern limited access highway in North America. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is a toll highway system operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in the state of Pennsylvania, United States.
- The initial problem of economic marketing of a limited number of goods that could stand such high freight costs. The insensitivity of the new U. S. Federal Government to the marketing problems in the west led to the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania, an event which seriously challenged the political viability of the new American nation. The Whiskey Rebellion, less commonly known as the Whiskey Insurrection, was a popular uprising that had its beginnings in 1791 and culminated in an insurrection in 1794 in the Later marketing arrangements turned to access via the Ohio River, with Pittsburgh a barge and steamboat center of the mid-continent. The Ohio River is the largest Tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. Today, Pittsburgh is still strongly oriented to the rivers; the port of Pittsburgh ranks No. 13 by tonnage in the USA and even surpasses the Port of Philadelphia in tonnage, thanks to the heavy shipping of bulk coal by barge inland on the rivers (Source: US Corps of Engineers, Waterborne Commerce by Tonnage, 2002). BARGE, the Big August RecGambling Excursion is a yearly convention held in Las Vegas during the first weekend of August Locally, a system of agriculture arose suitable to Western Pennsylvania's rugged terrain, emphasizing animal husbandry and dairying but with few exportable vegetable crops. The search for some sort of exportable agricultural specialty perhaps also encouraged the rise of the sauce industry and its first location at Sharpsburg in what was later to become the large H.J. Heinz Company.
- The search for exploitable resources first resulted with the development of huge bituminous coal or "soft" coal deposits in the area for use in a growing iron foundry sector. Bitumen is a mixture of organic Liquids that are highly Viscous, black sticky entirely soluble in Carbon disulfide, and composed primarily It was not until the realization by Andrew Carnegie, however, that Western Pennsylvania possessed an optimum location for a very large scale American steel sector that this area, and especially Pittsburgh, became known for the industrial specialty that characterizes them today. Andrew Carnegie (properly kɑrˈneɪgi but commonly /ˈkɑrnɨgi/ or /kɑrˈnɛgi/ (25 November 1835 – 11 August 1919 was a Scottish -born American Industrialist Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 The region also had large glass, pottery, brickmaking, and ceramic industries, which took advantage of the coal and the sand and clay in local soils. Glass in the common sense refers to a Hard, Brittle, transparent Solid, such as that used for Windows many Pottery is the Ceramic ware made by potters It also refers to a group of materials that includes Earthenware, Stoneware A brick is a block of Ceramic material used in Masonry construction laid using mortar. The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός ( keramikos) The rise and subsequent decline of the American steel industry at Pittsburgh introduces a host of complex economic concepts necessary to understand why that particular activity centered in this particular place, including the notions of classical Weberian location analysis for more than one input, the Pittsburgh Plus system for maintaining advantageous freight costs to ship to the market, vertical integration and supply innovations such as the development of the Mesabi Range, the ore freighter as a transport vehicle, and the construction of the Soo Locks. The Rust Belt, sometimes called the Manufacturing Belt, is an area in parts of the Northeastern United States, Mid-Atlantic States, and portions of the Other necessary economic concepts for description could well include economies of scale, diseconomies of scale, monopoly (or cartel) price equilibrium, and "dumping". Labor relations problems historically were frequent in the earlier steel sector, and mention should be made of the United Steel Workers of America, as well as the contemporary issue of " legacy costs" arising from heavy entitlements to a large retired labor force after sharply downziing to today's level of employment. Template talkInfobox Union for usage --> The United Steel Paper and Forestry Rubber Manufacturing Energy Allied Industrial
- Other exploitable resources in Western Pennsylvania were also distinct. One was the drilling of the first oil well in the world at Titusville and the rise of the US petroleum industry. Another was wide-spread deforestation of the outlying areas and their subsequent reforestation under Gifford Pinchot, who instituted the first large scale government sponsored timber management effort in the USA. Gifford Pinchot ( August 11 1865 October 4 1946) was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service (1905–1910 and the During this time of intensive exploitation of forests a whole new sector, the wood chemistry industry, appeared and then later vanished. Finally, mention should also be made of management in the forested areas of a large animal population which supports the famous "Pennsylvania deer-hunting" cultural ethos. Indeed, the first day of deer-hunting season is a de facto unofficial holiday in much of the central and northern regions of the state, when absence from work or school is generally tolerated with no explanation necessary.
- Since the early 1950s, a renaissance occurred in the development of cultural institutions and abatement of pollution in Pittsburgh and its surrounding area. The effects of this increase in liveability are particularly apparent in the Golden Triangle district of downtown Pittsburgh, which at one point had been plagued with so much industrial haze that drivers used their headlights in mid-day. Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people However, this social improvement has not always been accompanied by a serious plan of regional economic development to assess what, precisely, should fill the income void after the departure of steel. In addition, the city of Pittsburgh continues to become de-populated and has recently been put under state supervision of its finances.
- Culturally, the distinctiveness of Western Pennsylvania is underlined by the existence of a unique local dialect called "Pittsburghese" or Pittsburgh English, sometimes affectionately termed the "yinzer" dialect, due to its use of the term "yins" (also spelled "yunz, "yinz", "youns", etc. Pittsburgh English, popularly known as Pittsburghese, is the dialect of American English spoken by many residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ) as the plural form of "you". Western Pennsylvanians also refer to soft drinks as "pop" while in the eastern half of the state it is referred to as "soda. "
- Near Shanksville, Somerset County, is the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, the " Let's Roll" flight which occurred on 9/11 after passengers attempted to overpower the plane's hijackers. United Airlines Flight 93 was a scheduled United States domestic passenger flight from Newark International Airport The site is an informal patriotic shrine with many hand-made mementos voluntarily gracing the area. There is a movement to add the site to the National Park System. It is a startling coincidence that the Shanksville site is comparatively close to the other centuries-earlier locations of military engagements in Western Pennsylvania, such as Fort Duquesne and the area of the Whiskey Rebellion. Fort Duquesne (originally called Fort Du Quesne) was a Fort established by the French in 1754, at the junction of the Allegheny The Whiskey Rebellion, less commonly known as the Whiskey Insurrection, was a popular uprising that had its beginnings in 1791 and culminated in an insurrection in 1794 in the This can in part be explained by the fact that all these locations were on a strategic route from eastern settlements in Pennsylvania and Virginia (and, later, Washington, D. C. ) to the West.
- The Erie Triangle and the city of Erie give Pennsylvania a port along the Great Lakes. The Erie Triangle is a tract of American land that was the subject of several competing colonial -era claims and which was eventually acquired by the U The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border. The Erie region is also known for its distinct agriculture, centered around grapes and other fruit, due to the moderating climatic influence (in summer) from the Lake. (In winter, the area is often inundated with "lake-effect" snow. Lake-effect snow is produced in the winter when cold Arctic winds move across long expanses of warmer lake water providing energy and picking up Water vapor which freezes ) There are also small commercial fresh-water fisheries and many streams and smaller lakes with a variety of fish to catch, including yellow perch and walleye.
Politics
Western Pennsylvania is considered more socially conservative than Eastern Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia area. However, Pittsburgh's voting records show a preference for Democratic candidates. This is probably due, at least in part, to the local political history, which was formed by working-class factory workers and their families, as well as the large population of labor union members who remain and vote Democratic today (see Homestead Strike). The Homestead Strike was a labor lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents The politics of Pittsburgh seem to have more in common with other Rust Belt Democratic areas in the Midwest, such as Wisconsin, than with the other half of Pennsylvania. The Rust Belt, sometimes called the Manufacturing Belt, is an area in parts of the Northeastern United States, Mid-Atlantic States, and portions of the
External links
References
- Smith, Helene and George Swetnam (1991). Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania, Revised and Enlarged Edition. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-3630-5.
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