A Walking Tour of Altoona, Pennsylvania
By Doug Gelbert
()
About this ebook
There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a downloadable walking tour is ready to explore when you are.
Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.
Before the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) stretched between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, a system of railroads, canals and inclined planes across the Alleghenies, known as the Main Line of Public Works, linked the eastern and western sections of the state. The system was time consuming and inefficient, if not entirely useless during the winter freeze and spring floods. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania was rapidly being usurped by New York state and its Erie Canal as America’s pathway to the West.
The State Canal Commission looked to compete with a cross-state train route for which their engineer, Charles L. Schlatter, identified three possible routes. Understandably, when the founders of the PRR approached the State legislature in 1846 to build the railroad, the latter passed an act incorporating the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and granted its charter. John Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the new company, then selected Schlatter’s central or Juniata-Conemaugh River route. Because Thomson’s scheme maximized use of the low grades over the majority of the route west with a short, but steep climb over the mountains, he needed additional engine power to be available at a convenient location. The point at which the water grade ended and the mountain passage began was Robinson’s Ridge, the present site of Altoona, located 117 miles east of Pittsburgh and 235 miles west of Philadelphia. Here, beginning in 1849, the PRR built a facility for housing and repairing the additional motive power — it also spurred the development of a city.
West of town the challenge of carrying the Pennsylvania Railroad Mainline over the rugged Allegheny Mountains was met with the design and construction of “The Horseshoe Curve” in 1854. The huge lop connects one side of the valley with the other and was carved from the rugged mountainside entirely by men using picks, shovels and horses. To this day, the curve is considered to be an engineering marvel. Spending so much time digging out the curve it was natural that Altoona would become the major supplying town to the railroad industry, and for several years Altoona was the greatest railroad town in America.
Altoona was incorporated as a borough on February 6, 1854, and as a city under legislation approved on April 3, 1867, and February 8, 1868. The town grew rapidly in the late 19th century, its population approximately 2,000 in 1854, 10,000 in 1870, and 20,000 in 1880. In the early 20th century, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Alttona Works complex alone employed, at its peak, approximately 15,000 people and covered three miles in length, 218 acres of yards and 37 acres of indoor workshop floor space in 122 buildings.
Live by the railroad, die by the railroad; Altoona declined in tandem with the abandonment of rail passenger service in America after World War II. Our walking tour will concentrate on the downtown area and visit financial sites, cultural sites, residential sites, sacred sites and, of course, the remnants of the largest railroad shops America has ever seen...
Read more from Doug Gelbert
A Walking Tour of The New Orleans French Quarter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Williamsburg, Virginia Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Walking Tour of Miami Beach, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, San Diego! A Walking Tour of Balboa Park Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Look Up, Savannah! A Walking Tour of Savannah, Georgia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Walking Tour of New Bern, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Tucson, Arizona! A Walking Tour of Tucson, Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Aiken, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Charleston! A Walking Tour of Charleston, South Carolina: The Battery Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Look Up, Long Beach! A Walking Tour of Long Beach, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of New York City's Upper West Side Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Walking Tour of Greensboro, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Uniontown, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Phoenix, Arizona! A Walking Tour of Phoenix, Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Jacksonville, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Boise! A Walking Tour of Boise, Idaho Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Georgetown, South Carolina Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Walking Tour of A Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Gettysburg! A Walking Tour of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Salisbury, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Beaufort, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of New York City's Upper East Side Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Wilmington, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Salem! A Walking Tour of Salem, Oregon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Staunton, Virginia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Tampa, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of St. Augustine, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Meadville, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Oakland! A Walking Tour of Oakland, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Nashville! A Walking Tour of Nashville, Tennessee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Walking Tour of Altoona, Pennsylvania
Related ebooks
Altoona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJuniata's River Valleys Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of New York City Midtown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGive Me Liberty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAround Blair County Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGlenview Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civil War Live: Observations and Experiences of Charles Carleton Coffin From the American Battlegrounds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTyra: Through Blood, Sweat, and Tears Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTecumseh:: The First Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Treasures in Great-Granny's Scrapbook: A Perry County Historical Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDunwoody Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEchoes from the Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew York's North Country and the Civil War: Soldiers, Civilians and Legacies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Majesty of Colonial Williamsburg Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIra Township Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSweetwater: A Biography of Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBerkley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNewfane and Olcott Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuilding The Transcontinental Railroad Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Your Bones--An Inside Look at Skeletons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History of the Civil War, 1861-1865: Annotated Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Thomas Fleming's The Strategy of Victory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Early Life of Abraham Lincoln Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthan Allen & the Capture of Fort Ticonderoga: America's First Victory Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Virginia Ball : Immigrant Family 1650 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWindermere & Grasmere in the Great War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last of the Giants (How Christ Came to the Lumberjacks) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWilliam Bradford of Plymouth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History For You
Don Juan and the Art of Sexual Energy: The Rainbow Serpent of the Toltecs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win | Summary & Key Takeaways Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"America is the True Old World" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Napoleon's Hemorrhoids: And Other Small Events That Changed History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America is the True Old World, Volume II: The Promised Land Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Secrets of the Freemasons: The Truth Behind the World's Most Mysterious Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Vol. 1: To 1877 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hidden Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Wall Street: The Wealthy African American Community of the Early 20th Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything American History Book: People, Places, and Events That Shaped Our Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan & Superstitions in the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, & Endurance in Early America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Southern Cunning: Folkloric Witchcraft In The American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Constitution of the United States of America: 1787 (Annotated) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Roland S. Martin's White Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Walking Tour of Altoona, Pennsylvania
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A Walking Tour of Altoona, Pennsylvania - Doug Gelbert
A Walking Tour of Altoona, Pennsylvania
a walking tour in the Look Up, America series from walkthetown.com
by Doug Gelbert
published by Cruden Bay Books at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 by Doug Gelbert
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Before the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) stretched between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, a system of railroads, canals and inclined planes across the Alleghenies, known as the Main Line of Public Works, linked the eastern and western sections of the state. The system was time consuming and inefficient, if not entirely useless during the winter freeze and spring floods. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania was rapidly being usurped by New York state and its Erie Canal as America’s pathway to the West.
The State Canal Commission looked to compete with a cross-state train route for which their engineer, Charles L. Schlatter, identified three possible routes. Understandably, when the founders of the PRR approached the State legislature in 1846 to build the railroad, the latter passed an act incorporating the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and granted its charter. John Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the new company,