Portal:Pennsylvania

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Pennsylvania (/ˌpɛnsɪlˈveɪniə/ (listen); Pennsylvania German: Pennsilfaani), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. Pennsylvania borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio to its west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest, New York state to its north, and the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east.

Pennsylvania is the fifth-most populous state in the nation with over 13 million residents , its highest decennial count ever. The state is the 33rd-largest by area and ranks ninth among all states in population density. The southeastern Delaware Valley metropolitan area comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the state's largest and nation's sixth-most populous city. Another 2.37 million reside in Greater Pittsburgh in the southwest, centered in and around Pittsburgh, the state's second-largest and Western Pennsylvania's largest city. The state's subsequent five most populous cities are: Allentown, Reading, Erie, Scranton, and Bethlehem. The state capital is Harrisburg.

Pennsylvania's geography is highly diverse: the Appalachian Mountains run through the center of the state; the Allegheny and Pocono mountains span much of Northeastern Pennsylvania; close to 60% of the state is forested. While it has only 140 miles (225 km) of waterfront along Lake Erie and the Delaware River, Pennsylvania has more navigable rivers than any other state in the nation, including the Delaware, Ohio, and Pine Creek rivers. (Full article...)

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Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Recognized for her genre-spanning discography, songwriting, and artistic reinventions, Swift is a prominent cultural figure who has been cited as an influence on a generation of music artists.

Swift started professional songwriting at 14 and signed a recording contract with Big Machine Records in 2005 to become a country musician. Under Big Machine, she released six studio albums, four of which to country radio, starting with her self-titled album (2006). Her next record, Fearless (2008), explored country pop, and its singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me" catapulted her to mainstream fame. Speak Now (2010) incorporated rock influences, and Red (2012) experimented with electronic elements and featured Swift's first Billboard Hot 100 number-one song, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together". She abandoned her country image with 1989 (2014), a synth-pop album supported by chart-topping songs "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", and "Bad Blood". Media scrutiny inspired her next album, the hip-hop-flavored Reputation (2017), and its number-one single "Look What You Made Me Do". (Full article...)

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Pithole, or Pithole City, is a ghost town in Cornplanter Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania, United States, about 6 miles (9.7 km) from Oil Creek State Park and the Drake Well Museum, the site of the first commercial oil well in the United States. Pithole's sudden growth and equally rapid decline, as well as its status as a "proving ground" of sorts for the burgeoning petroleum industry, made it one of the most famous of oil boomtowns.

Oil strikes at nearby wells in January 1865 prompted a large influx of people to the area that would become Pithole, most of whom were land speculators. The town was laid out in May 1865, and by December was incorporated with an approximate population of 20,000. At its peak, Pithole had at least 54 hotels, 3 churches, the third largest post office in Pennsylvania, a newspaper, a theater, a railroad, the world's first pipeline and a red-light district "the likes of Dodge City's." By 1866, economic growth and oil production in Pithole had slowed. Oil strikes around other nearby communities and numerous fires drove residents away from Pithole and, by 1877, the borough was unincorporated. (Full article...)

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Credit: Katie Tegtmeyer
JFK Plaza with the LOVE sculpture and fountain.

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… that the large pothole in Archbald Pothole State Park (sign pictured) in Pennsylvania formed about 13,000 years ago in the Wisconsin glaciation, but was not discovered until 1884 by a coal miner?
… that Chiques Creek in Pennsylvania, named for the Lenape word Chiquesalunga (meaning place of crayfish), has 13 variant names according to the USGS?
… that although the name of Pennsylvania's western Conewago Creek means at the rapids in the Lenape language, there are no rapids in the creek itself?
… that Ravensburg State Park in Pennsylvania, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, is named for the ravens that still roost there?
… that Ole Bull State Park in Pennsylvania is named for the renowned Norwegian violinist who tried to establish a Norwegian colony in the wilderness there in the 1850s?

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Erie	Lehigh Valley	Pennsylvania Roads

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Elizabethtown station is an Amtrak railroad station on the Keystone Corridor in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The station is served by Amtrak's Keystone Service between New York City and Harrisburg, and by the Pennsylvanian between New York and Pittsburgh. The station was built in 1915 by the Pennsylvania Railroad to replace another that had been built in 1900. The station building was closed in 1977 by Amtrak. The title to the building was transferred to the borough of Elizabethtown in 1998, and it was leased back to Amtrak. From 2009 to 2011, the station underwent a 21-month renovation to make it handicapped-accessible. (Full article...)

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William Penn, who founded the Colony of Pennsylvania in 1681 as a refuge for Quakers, receives a royal deed from King Charles II, in The Birth of Pennsylvania

The history of Pennsylvania stems back thousands of years when the first indigenous peoples occupied the area of what is now Pennsylvania. In 1681, Pennsylvania became an English colony when William Penn received a royal deed from King Charles II of England. Although European activity in the region precedes that date (the area was first colonized by the Dutch in 1643). The area was home to the Lenape, Susquehannocks, Iroquois, Erie, Shawnee, Arandiqiouia, and other American Indian tribes. Most of these tribes were driven off or reduced to remnants as a result of diseases, such as smallpox.

The English took control of the colony in 1667. In 1681, William Penn, a Quaker, established a colony based on religious tolerance; it was settled by many Quakers along with its chief city Philadelphia, which was also the first planned city. In the mid-1700s, the colony attracted many German and Scots-Irish immigrants. (Full article...)

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Pennsylvania news

State facts

State Facts

Pennsylvania's largest city Philadelphia

Nickname: The Keystone State
Capital: Harrisburg
Largest city: Philadelphia
Total area: 119,283 square kilometers (46,055 square miles)
Population (2000 census): 12,281,054
Date admitted to the Union: December 12, 1787 (2^nd)

State symbols

Mountain laurel, Pennsylvania's state flower

Bird: Ruffed grouse
Fish: Brook trout
Floral emblem: Mistletoe
Flower: Mountain laurel
Insect: Pennsylvania firefly
Mammal: White-tailed deer
Tree: Eastern Hemlock
Fossil: Trilobite
Soil: Hazleton
Song: Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania topics

General images

The following are images from various Pennsylvania-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Köppen climate types in Pennsylvania (from Pennsylvania)
Image 2Geno's Steaks in South Philadelphia is widely credited with inventing the cheesesteak in 1933 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 3The locations of New Netherland (magenta) and New Sweden (blue) in the 17th century. New Sweden was later absorbed by New Netherland before the latter was conquered by the English during the Second Anglo-Dutch War (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 4Benjamin Franklin statue on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution in Philadelphia ranked one of world's top universities (from Pennsylvania)
Image 5On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln (center, facing camera) arrived in Gettysburg and delivered the Gettysburg Address, considered one of the best-known speeches in American history. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 6Benjamin Franklin, a polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 7One of only two confirmed photos of Abraham Lincoln (sitting center, facing camera without traditional top hat, bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon to his right) a few hours prior to his November 19, 1863, Gettysburg Address at Gettysburg National Cemetery, one of the most important speeches in American history (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 8Autumn in North Branch Township in Wyoming County, October 2011 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 9Ethnic origins of Pennsylvanians (from Pennsylvania)
Image 10Pittsburgh Steelers' fans waving the Terrible Towel, a tradition that dates back to 1975 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 11NASCAR racing at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond (from Pennsylvania)
Image 12Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia, home of the Philadelphia Phillies, the oldest continuous same-name, same-city franchise in American professional sports (from Pennsylvania)
Image 13The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1–3, 1863 in Gettysburg, was the Civil War's deadliest battle but also is widely considered the war's turning point in the Union's ultimate victory. The battle is depicted in this 1887 Thure de Thulstrup painting, Battle of Gettysburg. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 14An Amish family riding in a traditional Amish buggy in Lancaster County; Pennsylvania has the largest Amish population of any state. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 152020 U.S. presidential election results by county in Pennsylvania
Democratic
Republican
(from Pennsylvania)
Image 16Map of Pennsylvania's 67 counties (from Pennsylvania)
Image 17The Hershey Company in Hershey (from Pennsylvania)
Image 18Frederick Winslow Taylor of Philadelphia, a late 19th and early 20th century pioneer in scientific management (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 19Philadelphia International Airport, the busiest airport in the state and the 21st-busiest airport in the nation with nearly 10 million passengers annually as of 2021 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 20A locomotive, Tioga, in Philadelphia in 1848. Pennsylvania became an important railroad center during the 19th century (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 21The colonial possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange) as of 1750. The French later lost their North American possessions to England after the French and Indian War, fought from 1754 to 1763 (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 22Shelter House in Emmaus, constructed in 1734 by Pennsylvania German settlers, is the oldest continuously occupied building structure in the Lehigh Valley and one of the oldest in Pennsylvania (from Pennsylvania)
Image 23The Philadelphia Eagles are presented with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 24Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom's Steel Force and Thunderhawk roller coasters in Allentown; Steel Force is the eighth-longest steel roller coaster in the world with a first drop of 205 feet (62 m) and a top speed of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h). (from Pennsylvania)
Image 25The Stonycreek Township crash site of Flight 93, one of four planes hijacked in the September 11 attacks; the site is now a national memorial. Flight 93 passengers wrestled with al-Qaeda terrorist hijackers for control of the plane, preventing it from being flown into the White House or U.S. Capitol. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 26Amtrak's Pennsylvanian on Horseshoe Curve in Logan Township (from Pennsylvania)
Image 27Simon Cameron of Maytown was Secretary of War and head of the state Republican Party whose party machine controlled Pennsylvania well into the 20th century (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 28Stock certificate of the Pennsylvania Population Company, issued 14 July 1792, originally signed by John Nicholson as President and by Tench Francis as Treasurer (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 29The Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg (from Pennsylvania)
Image 30Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem was one of the world's leading steel manufacturers for most of the 19th and 20th century. In 1982, however, it discontinued most of its operations, declared bankruptcy in 2001, and was dissolved in 2003. (from Pennsylvania)
Image 31Lenape chief Lappawinsoe, depicted in a 1735 painting by Gustavus Hesselius (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 32William Penn, who founded the Colony of Pennsylvania in 1681 as a refuge for Quakers, receives a royal deed from King Charles II, in The Birth of Pennsylvania (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 33
Pennsylvania unemployment rate, 1976–2021
US unemployment rate
(from Pennsylvania)
Image 34The Gettysburg campaign, culminating in the Battle of Gettysburg, was a major turning point in the American Civil War and the war's bloodiest battle with an estimated 46,000 to 51,000 casualties (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 35Rivers Casino, located on the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, ne of Pennsylvania's 16 casinos (from Pennsylvania)
Image 36Stephen Decatur, a 19th-century naval commander who served in the War of 1812 and other engagements (from History of Pennsylvania)
Image 37South Philadelphia High School on Broad Street in South Philadelphia, February 2010 (from Pennsylvania)
Image 38Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were adopted in 1776 and 1787-88, respectively (from Pennsylvania)