110 Federal Park Road, Gallitzin, PA 16641
Phone: 814-886-6150 or 814-886-6100
Fax: 814-886-6120
Open All Year
Overview. Between the port city of Philadelphia and the western states stood an enormous obstacle: the Allegheny Mountains. Before the Pennsylvania Railroad was completed in 1854, barge traffic on the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal had to make it over a 2,400-foot summit. After opening in 1834, the 36-mile Allegheny Portage Railroad employed a system of pulleys and inclined planes to bring canal boats from one side to the other. For twenty years this portage provided an essential economic and social link between the Atlantic seaboard and the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys, but the opening of the major railroads signaled the end of Allegheny Portage Railroad. Today the site preserves the landscape and displays models of engineering marvels used to overcome natural obstacles.What to see and do. Plan to spend a few hours looking at indoor exhibits and walking the trails. At the visitor center, open from 9 AM to 5 PM (until 6 PM summers), a 20-minute film introduces you to the details of this unique railroad. Here and at the Lemon House, a tavern built by Samuel Lemon during the portage's peak years, look through exhibits and watch costumed interpreters bring these bustling decades of early national expansion alive. Be sure to step inside the Engine House Exhibit Center, which houses a full-scale model of how the inclines worked. The site is handicapped-accessible. Take time for nature hikes through the surrounding forest on the site's 2.5 miles of trails. An outdoor amphitheater offers summer programs. Call ahead for details on the summer schedule and also the "Evening on the Summit" program. Fees: A nominal entrance fee is charged for those aged 17 and older.
Search All National Parks
Please call ahead to confirm details. We do our best to give you current information, but facts can change. Please let us know if you find something's changed.
|
