Tourist information -
Harrisburg
Harrisburg is a city on the Susquehanna River, seat of Dauphin County and capital of Pennsylvania, in the southern part of the state. The chief employer is the state government, but the city is also an important commercial, manufacturing, and transportation center; products include electronic equipment, aircraft engines, steel, office machines, building materials, clothing, and processed food. Insurance has long been an important industry here. Harrisburg is served by an international airport, railroads, and interstate highways. Located in Harrisburg are the New Cumberland Army Depot and the United States Naval Supply Depot; nearby are the United States Army War College and the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation. Of interest are the State Capitol (completed 1906), with a dome modeled after Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome; the State Museum of Pennsylvania; the William Penn Museum and Archives; and the Historical Society of Dauphin County, housed in the John Harris Mansion (1766). The city contains numerous parks, and nearby are Penn National Racetrack and Indian Echo Caverns. A junior college is in Harrisburg, and the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg-the Capital College (1966) is in suburban Middletown.
Until about 1785 the Harrisburg area was occupied by Native Americans of the Shawnee, Conoy, Tuscarora, Delaware, and Susquehannock tribes. The site of the city was settled about 1719 by Englishman John Harris, who built a ferry and trading post. First called Harris' Ferry, the community was renamed Harrisburg when it was laid out in 1785. Harrisburg became the state capital in 1812 and subsequently was the scene of several notable political conventions, including the first national Whig Party convention (1839), which nominated William H. Harrison as its presidential candidate. The opening of the Pennsylvania Canal in 1834, the arrival of the railroad in 1836, and the completion of the Harrisburg-Pittsburgh section of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1847 helped make Harrisburg an important distribution and manufacturing center. The city was incorporated in 1860. Nearby Camp Hill was the scene of an American Civil War battle in 1863. After a period of decline in the mid-20th century, when a substantial portion of its population moved to suburban communities, Harrisburg was revitalized by a major urban-renewal program adopted in the mid-1970s. |
