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Pennsylvania
The Keystone State, ridge-and-valley heart of Appalachia
Pennsylvania is Appalachian country at its most structured. Long, parallel ridges and valleys run diagonally across the state in the classic folded-mountain pattern, the result of an ancient continental collision that crumpled the rock like a rug. To the southeast lies the rolling Piedmont and the rich farmland around Lancaster — to the northwest, the Allegheny Plateau and a short shoulder of Lake Erie shoreline. Two great river systems — the Delaware in the east, the Ohio's headwaters in the west — drain the state in opposite directions.
The folded mountains hid enormous mineral wealth that powered American industry: anthracite coal in the northeast, bituminous coal and oil in the west, where the world's first commercial oil well was drilled in 1859. Mount Davis, the high point at 3,213 feet (979 m), rises on the Allegheny Plateau. Philadelphia, on the Delaware, and Pittsburgh, where three rivers meet to form the Ohio, anchor opposite ends of the state — one the cradle of the nation, the other the forge of its steel — bridged by the ridges and farms between.
Economy
Pennsylvania's economy has shifted from its industrial past in steel and coal toward a diversified base. Healthcare and higher education - the so-called eds and meds - are now leading employers in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, alongside finance, advanced manufacturing, and a major natural-gas industry tapping the Marcellus Shale. Rich farmland across the state, including the Pennsylvania Dutch country, keeps agriculture important.
Politics
Pennsylvania is one of the most pivotal swing states in the country, carrying 19 electoral votes that have repeatedly proved decisive. Its politics split along a well-known geography: the Democratic strongholds of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh at either end, the Republican rural and small-town interior between them - the so-called T - and contested suburbs that often decide statewide elections.