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Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania (the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is one of four states of the United States of America that is called a commonwealth. It has given its name to the Pennsylvanian time period in geology. Pennsylvania is called the Keystone State.

Although Swedes and Dutch were the first European settlers, the Quaker William Penn named Pennsylvania for the Latin phrase meaning "Penn's Woods", in honor of his father. Today, two major cities dominate the state—Philadelphia, home of the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and a thriving metropolitan area, and Pittsburgh, a busy inland river port and major center for educational and technological advance. The Pocono Mountains and the Delaware Water Gap provide popular recreational activities.

Pennsylvania is one of the U.S.'s most historic states. Philadelphia is often called the cradle of the American Nation. It was here that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drawn up by the Founding Fathers.

The so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch" region in south-central Pennsylvania is another favorite of sightseers. Pennsylvania Germans, including the Amish and the Mennonites, dominate the area around the cities of Lancaster, York, and Harrisburg, with smaller numbers extending northeast to the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area and up the Susquehanna River valley. Some of the Old Order Amish have left the area, but many Mennonites remain, particularly in Lancaster County. Some adherents eschew modern conveniences and use horse-drawn farming equipment and carriages, while others are virtually indistinguishable from non-Amish or Mennonites.

(The term "Dutch" is a misnomer, as none of these groups are of Dutch origin; the German adjective for "German", Deutsch, was misheard as "Dutch" and the name stuck.)

The battleship USS Pennsylvania, damaged at Pearl Harbor, was named in honor of this state, as were several other naval vessels. It was repaired at the former Sun Ship Yard & Dry Dock in Chester City.

Geography

Pennsylvania's nickname "The Keystone State" is quite apt, as the state forms a geographic bridge both between the Northeastern states and the Southern states, and between the Atlantic seaboard and the Midwest. It is bordered on the north and northeast by New York, on the east, across the Delaware River by New Jersey, on the south by Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia, on the west by Ohio, and on the northwest by Lake Erie. The Delaware, Susquehanna, Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio Rivers are the major rivers of the state. The Youghiogheny River and Oil Creek are smaller rivers which have played an important role in the development of the state. The capital is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is 180 miles (290 km) north to south and 310 miles (500 km) east to west. The total land area is 44,817 square miles (119,283 km²), 739,200 acres (2,990 km²) of which are bodies of water. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States. The highest point of 3,213 feet (979 m) above sea level is at Mount Davis. Its lowest point is at sea level on the Delaware River. Pennsylvania is in the Eastern time zone.

It sometimes helps to consider the western third of the state a separate large geophysical unit, which is so distinctive that it can often best be described on its own. Several important, complex factors set Western Pennsylvania apart in many respects from the east, such as the initial difficulty of access across the mountains, an orientation to the Mississippi drainage system of rivers, and above all, the complex economics involved in the rise and decline of the American steel industry centered around Pittsburgh. Other factors, such as a markedly different style of agriculture, the rise of the oil industry, timber exploitation and the old wood chemical industry, and even, in linguistics, the local yinzer dialect, all make this large area sometimes seem a virtual "state within a state".

Pennsylvania is bisected diagonally by ridges of the Appalachian Mountain chain from southwest to northeast. To the northwest of the folded mountains is the Allegheny Plateau, which continues into southwestern and south central New York. This plateau is so dissected by valleys that it also seems mountainous. The Plateau is underlain by sedimentary rocks of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian age, which bear abundant fossils, as well as natural gas and petroleum. In 1859 near Titusville Edwin L. Drake drilled the first oil well in the USA into these sediments. Similar rock layers also contain coal to the south and east of the oil and gas deposits. In the metamorphic (folded) belt, anthracite (hard coal) is mined near Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton. These fossil fuels have been an important resource to Pennsylvania. Timber and dairy farming are also sources of livelihood for midstate and western Pennsylvania. Along the shore of Lake Erie in the far northwest are orchards and vineyards.

Pennsylvania's has 89 miles of shoreline along the Delaware River estuary but is a landlocked state with no coastline bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Pennsylvania is the only truly landlocked state of the original thirteen states, although Connecticut, located on the Long Island Sound, also has no actual coastline.

Pennsylvania has one of the largest seaports in the U.S. on its narrow shore, the Port of Philadelphia. In the west the Port of Pittsburgh is also very large and even exceeds Philadelphia in rank by annual tonnage, due to the large volume of bulk coal shipped by barge down the Ohio River. Chester, downstream from Philadelphia, and Erie, the Great Lakes outlet on Lake Erie in the Erie Triangle, are smaller but still important ports.

Pennsylvania has been the site of some of the most horrendous ecological disasters experienced in the USA. In 1889 the South Fork Dam, impounding a recreational mountain lake for sportsmen, burst after a heavy rain and destroyed the downstream factory town of Johnstown, killing over 2,200 inhabitants in the notorious Johnstown Flood (the town was later rebuilt and is a reasonably large community today in the central mountains). In 1961 an exposed seam of coal at Centralia, Pennsylvania caught fire and forced eventually almost the entire community to abandon their settlement; the coal fire is still burning today and is estimated to last 100 years more. Finally, in 1979 the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Incident near the state capital of Harrisburg, while not as destructive to the community, nevertheless cost close to $1 billion to clean up and changed the national public perception of nuclear power to a much less favorable viewpoint.

History

Before the state existed, the area was home to the Delaware (also known as Lenni Lenape), Susquehanna, Iroquois, Eriez, Shawnee, and other Native American tribes.

In 1643, the southeastern portion of the state, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, was settled by Sweden, but control later passed to the Netherlands, and then to England (later Great Britain).

On March 4, 1681, Charles II of England granted a land charter to William Penn for the area that now includes Pennsylvania. Penn then founded a colony there as a place of religious freedom for the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and named it for the Latin phrase meaning "Penn's woods".

A large tract of land north and west of Philadelphia, in Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware Counties, was settled by Welsh Quakers and called the "Welsh Tract". Even today many cities and towns in that area bear the names of Welsh municipalities.

The western portions of Pennsylvania were among disputed territory between the colonial British and French during the French and Indian War. The French established numerous fortifications in the area, including the pivotal Fort Duquesne on top of which the city of Pittsburgh was built.

The colony's reputation of religious freedom also attracted significant populations of German and Scots-Irish settlers who helped to shape colonial Pennsylvania and later went on to populate the neighboring states further west.

In 1704 the "three lower counties" of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex gained a separate legislature, and in 1710 a separate executive council, to form the new colony Delaware.

Pennsylvania and Delaware were two of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution of 1776. Pennsylvania became the second state on 12 December 1787 (five days after Delaware became the first).

Pennsylvania also saw the Battle of Gettysburg, near Gettysburg. Many historians consider this battle the major turning point of the American Civil War. Dead from this battle rest at Gettysburg National Cemetery, site of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.

In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. oil (kerosene) industry was born in western Pennsylvania, which supplied the vast majority of U.S. kerosene for years thereafter, and saw the rise and fall of oil boom towns.

During the 20th century Pennsylvania's existing iron industries expanded into a major center of steel production. Shipbuilding and numerous other forms of manufacturing flourished in the eastern part of the state, and coal mining was also extremely important in many regions. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Pennsylvania received very large numbers of immigrants from Europe seeking work; dramatic, sometimes violent confrontations took place between organized labor and the state's industrial concerns.

Pennsylvania was hard-hit by the decline of the steel industry and other heavy U.S. industries during the late 20th century.

Law and Government

Like all American states, the government of Pennsylvania is separated into an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, the powers and duties of which are established by the Pennsylvania Constitution. The capital of Pennsylvania is in Harrisburg.

Executive branch

The head of the executive branch is the Governor, who is currently Democrat Edward G Rendell, a former mayor of Philadelphia. The other elected officials composing the executive branch are the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Auditor General, and State Treasurer. The Governor's cabinet consists of the eighteen appointed heads of Pennsylvania state agencies: the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Adjutant General, Secretary of Education, Insurance Commissioner, Secretary of Banking, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Health, State Police Commissioner, Secretary of Labor and Industry, Secretary of Public Welfare, Secretary of Revenue, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Community Affairs, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Environmental Resources, Secretary of General Services, Secretary of Aging, and the Secretary of Corrections.

Legislative branch

Pennsylvania has had a bicameral legislature since 1790. The Pennsylvania General Assembly consists of a Senate with 50 members and a House of Representatives with 203. Notable General Assembly members include Senate President Pro Tempore Robert C. Jubelirer (R), Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill (R), Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow (D), Speaker of the House of Representatives John M. Perzel (R), House Majority Leader Samuel H. Smith (R), House Minority Leader H. William DeWeese (D), and Senate Minority Appropriations Chairman Vincent Fumo (D).

Judicial branch

Pennsylvania is divided into 60 judicial districts, most of which (save Philadelphia and Allegheny Counties) have district justices (formerly called justices of the peace), who preside mainly over minor criminal offenses and small civil claims. The Philadelphia Municipal Court and the Pittsburgh police magistrate court have similar jurisdiction, but are limited to those locations. As Philadelphia is coterminous with Philadelphia County, the Pittsburgh police magistrate court is the only true city-level court in the state.

The general trial courts in which most criminal and civil cases originate are the Courts of Common Pleas. They also serve as appellate courts to the district justices and for local agency decisions. The Courts of Common Pleas serving the larger Pennsylvania counties are divided into specialized divisions.

The state has two intermediate-level appellate courts: the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court. The fifteen judges of the Superior Court hear all appeals from the Courts of Common Pleas not expressly designated to the Commonwealth Court or Supreme Court. It also has original jurisdiction to review warrants for wiretap surveillance. The jurisdiction of the nine-judge Commonwealth Court is limited to appeals from final orders of certain state agencies and certain designated cases from the Courts of Common Pleas. The Commonwealth Court also functions as a trial court in some civil suits, including cases that involve the state or its officers as parties, and cases regarding statewide elections.

Pennsylvania's entire judicial system is under the supervision of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, which is also the final appellate court for both the Superior Court and the Commonwealth Court. It also hears appeals directly from the Courts of Common Pleas in certain cases, including from murder convictions in which the death penalty has been imposed, the right to public office, criminal contempt, and any case in which the Court of Common Pleas ruled that a state law was unconstitutional. Like all judges in Pennsylvania, the seven justices of the Supreme Court are chosen by public election; the chief justice is the justice with the most seniority.

Representation in the federal government

Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators are Rick Santorum (Republican) and Arlen Specter (Republican). Pennsylvania's 19 representatives in the House are Robert Brady (D, 1st District); Chaka Fattah (D, 2nd District); Phil English (R, 3rd District); Melissa Hart (R, 4th District); John E. Peterson (R, 5th District); Jim Gerlach (R, 6th District); Curt Weldon (R, 7th District); Michael Fitzpatrick (R, 8th District); Bill Shuster (R, 9th District); Don Sherwood (R, 10th District); Paul E. Kanjorski (D, 11th District); John Murtha (D, 12th District); Allyson Schwartz (D, 13th District); Mike Doyle (D, 14th District); Charlie Dent (R, 15th District); Joe Pitts (R, 16th District); Tim Holden (D, 17th District); Tim Murphy (R, 18th District); and Todd Russell Platts (R, 19th District).

Politics in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is considered a swing state as its politics are not dominated by any single party. As of 2005, the Republican Party holds both houses of the state legislature, both United States Senate seats and a majority of the state's seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the Democratic Party holds the governor's seat and their candidate has won the state in the past four presidential elections. Bill Clinton carried the state twice, Al Gore won here in 2000 as did John Kerry in 2004 with a slim 50.9% of the vote. The state is divided into heavily left leaning areas along the sides. Democrats are the majority in the Philadelphia area, as well as around Allentown, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in the east, and in the southwestern part of the state, the Pittsburgh area in the west and Erie in the northwest. The central, more rural part of the state tends to be very conservative. James Carville, the outspoken Democratic strategist, summed up Pennsylvania politics as "Philadelphia on one end, Pittsburgh on the other, with Alabama in the middle."

Economics

Pennsylvania's 1999 total gross state product was $383 billion, placing it 6th in the nation and its 2000 Per Capita Personal Income was $29,539, 18th in the nation. Its agricultural outputs are dairy products, poultry, cattle, nursery stock, mushrooms, hogs, and hay. Its industrial outputs are food processing, chemical products, machinery, electric equipment, and tourism.

Pennsylvania has a large, diverse group of manufacturing companies and within this group are some whose products have come to be household words, symbolic of ordinary American life. Among these products are Hershey bars from the Hershey Chocolate Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania; Heinz ketchup and Heinz-57 sauce from the H. J. Heinz Company in Pittsburgh; Crayola products from Binney & Smith, Inc., in Easton; and Zippo lighters from Zippo Manufacturing in Bradford.

Small companies, such as the Pennsylvania Dutch Candies company, also exist in Pennsylvania.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is well know for its quality wood products such as furniture, sheds, gazebos and play sets. Such items are shipped all over the country (and the world) out of Lancaster County. Most of these are produced by Amish and Mennonite craftsmen.

On Lake Erie some freshwater commercial fishing exists, the principal catch being yellow perch.

Demographics

Important Cities and Towns

Pennsylvania has only one incorporated town, Bloomsburg, the county seat of Columbia County. All other municipalities are incorporated as cities, boroughs or townships. It is technically incorrect to refer to any municipality in Pennsylvania other than Bloomsburg as a town.

Major cities and boroughs:

Allentown
Bethlehem
Easton
Erie
Lancaster
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Reading
Scranton
State College
Washington
Wilkes-Barre
Williamsport
York

Top and bottom 10 locations by per capita income:

Miscellaneous

State symbols

State animal: Whitetail Deer
State beverage: Milk
State bird: Ruffed Grouse
State capital: Harrisburg
State dog: Great Dane
State fish: Brook Trout
State flower: Mountain Laurel
State fossil: the trilobite Phacops rana
State insect: Firefly
State song: Pennsylvania
State tree: Hemlock
State ship: United States Brig Niagara
State electric locomotive: Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 #4849 Locomotive
State steam locomotive: Pennsylvania Railroad K4s Locomotive
State beautification plant: Crown vetch

Notable Pennsylvanians

• Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was one of the most important figures in Pennsylvania's history, although he was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He founded the University of Pennsylvania in 1742. He had the distinction of signing both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. He is buried with his wife Deborah in Christ Church Cemetery in Philadelphia.
• Stephen Foster was born in Pittsburgh on July 4, 1826. He was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of his era. Many of his songs, such as "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", and "Beautiful Dreamer", are still popular over 150 years after their composition.
• James Buchanan (1791–1868) was born and lived in Pennsylvania until his death. He was the 15th President of the United States and the only President from that state.
• George M. Dallas (1792–1864) of Philadelphia served as the 11th Vice President of the United States under James K. Polk and is the only Pennsylvanian to hold the office. He also served as U.S. Minister to Great Britain and Russia, as Mayor of Philadelphia and in the Senate.
• Thaddeus Stevens (1792–1868) was born and lived in Pennsylvania until his death. He was a key Pennsylvania state legislator in establishing and maintaining Pennsylvania's early system of public education. As a U.S. Congressman and leading "Radical Republican", he helped draft the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing "equal protection of the laws" to all Americans.
• Rachel Carson (1907–1964) born near Springdale, was a pioneer environmentalist and author of Silent Spring
• Winfield Scott Hancock (1824–1886) was born in Montgomery Square. He commanded Union troops during the American Civil War, most notably during the Battle of Gettysburg.
• Ida Tarbell (1857–1944) was born in Erie and was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris. She was a pioneering "muckraker" journalist and one of the few female journalists in the country during her time. In 1906, she joined with Lincoln Steffens and Ray Stannard Baker to establish the radical American Magazine. She also wrote several books on the role of women including The Business of Being a Woman (1912) and The Ways of Women (1915).
• Pop artist Andy Warhol (1928–1987) was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh. The Andy Warhol Museum is located in Pittsburgh's North Side, and he is buried in nearby Bethel Park.
• Kurt Angle (1968—) was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Angle won the Gold Medal in freestyle Roman/Greco wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, before signing with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Entertainment, where he has won the WWE Championship on four different occasions. Angle is one of only two wrestlers in the WWE to have participated in the Olympics, and is the only one to have won gold medals.
• K. Leroy Irvis (1918—) was born near Albany, New York, but came to Pennsylvania to head Pittsburgh's Urban League in the 1940s. Fired under pressure after leading a successful boycott of Pittsburgh's department stores for discriminating against African-Americans, Irvis enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh law school, graduated with honors, became Pittsburgh's first black judicial law clerk, then an assistant district attorney, then a state legislator. Serving 30 years in the Pennsylvania House (1958–1988), 26 of them as an elected Democratic leader, Irvis became the first 20th Century African-American Speaker in 1977. He was a major force behind numerous successful efforts to expand educational opportunities in Pennsylvania.
• General of the Army George C. Marshall (1880–1959) of Uniontown, lead the United States Army as Chief of Staff during the Second World War. He later served as Secretary of State and authored the Marshall Plan.
• Tom Ridge, The former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (1945-), was Governor of Pennsylvania between 1995 and 2003. Prior to that, he was a US Representative from Erie between 1982 and 1995.
• Eugene W. Hickok, The former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education from 2004–2005, and prior to that, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education from 1995–2001.
• Marion Anderson, of Philadelphia, world-reknowned contralto, who, after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let her sing at Constitution Hall because she was African-American, was famously invited to sing at the Lincoln Memorial by Eleanor Roosevelt.

Pennsylvania in popular music

Pennsylvania has given birth to some of the nation's leading popular and rock music groups, including Anti-Flag, Christina Aguilera, Bloodhound Gang, Boyz II Men, Vanessa Carlton, Coolio, Fuel, Hall & Oates, Live, Joan Jett, Patti LaBelle, Pink, Poison, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, The Roots, Jill Scott, Shanice, Will Smith, The Dead Milkmen, Flag of Democracy, Brett Michaels to name a few.

Pennsylvanians in Film, Television, and Theater

Many Pennsylvanians have found success in film, television, and the theater including:

F. Murray Abraham - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Kevin Bacon - Philadelphia
John Barrymore - Philadelphia
Lionel Barrymore - Philadelphia
Peter Boyle - Philadelphia
Charles Bronson - Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania
Bill Cosby - Philadelphia
Scott Glenn - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Shirley Jones - Charleroi, Pennsylvania
Gene Kelly - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Grace Kelly - Philadelphia
Jayne Mansfield - Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Henry Mancini - Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Dennis Miller - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
M. Night Shyamalan - Philadelphia (immigrated from India as a child)
Jimmy Stewart - Indiana, Pennsylvania
Mr. Rogers - Latrobe, Pennsylvania
David O. Selznick - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Fritz Weaver - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Michael Keaton - Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
Sharon Stone - Meadville, Pennsylvania
Will Smith - Philadelphia