Harrisburg

Harrisburg sits on the east bank of the broad, shallow Susquehanna River where it cuts through the ridges of central Pennsylvania, at a historic ferry and crossing point. The river gap fixed the site as a transportation hub, and Harrisburg became the state capital in 1812, replacing Lancaster and Philadelphia as government moved toward the interior. Its grand domed capitol overlooks the wide river.

The Susquehanna here is unusually wide and braided with islands, threading through the folded Appalachian ridges of the ridge-and-valley country. Harrisburg grew as a center of steel, rail, and transport at the crossroads of the state, and it anchors a metro in the fertile farm country of central Pennsylvania, near the Pennsylvania Dutch region.

• Pennsylvania
  The Keystone State, ridge-and-valley heart of Appalachia located in
• Philadelphia
  The sixth-largest U.S. city, between two rivers same state
• Pittsburgh
  The Steel City, where three rivers meet same state