I parked in the commuter lot on City Island around 7 am (free on Saturday), continued walking west on that bridge to the Susquehanna River’s west bank, then south down the abandoned railroad bed (now barely a path) to below the I-83 bridge. This is the view looking back toward the city. That started the day off right.
Walking back east across the river on the abandoned railroad bridge that touches the downstream end of City Island (old Reading RR, I think) I enjoyed a Norfolk Southern freight very picturesquely crossing the adjacent active railroad bridge paralleling I-83.
Directly upstream from that bridge (the active one), extending out into the river from the west bank, also visible on satellite photos, is part of “Vanderbilt’s Folly,” eight piers (and a ninth I noticed in the west bank woods) of a never-completed bridge for the never realized “Southern Pennsylvania Division” of the New York Central Railroad, the Central’s direct challenge to the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Main Line. Construction was halted by The Commodore himself in the late 1880’s, not just on this viaduct but the whole project, which fifty years later became the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Harrisburg west, including its numerous tunnels through the Alleghenies. Vanderbilt’s Folly is the history of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Continuing walking east into the city along the tracks of the abandoned but intact bridge brings you to the Harrisburg Transportation Center, formerly the Pennsyvania Railroad Station, a National Historic Landmark. There are more than a dozen trains between here and New York, via Philadelphia, each day on a fully electified line. West from Harrisburg there are only a couple, and not electric. Harrisburg is also one of three hubs of the Norfolk Southern RR, the two others being Atlanta and Chicago.
Continuing walking up State St., Harrisburg’s grand entrance from the east, to the eastern city line, the city’s highest point, I found the new (2002) National Civil War Museum. Spectacular views here, to the north the Blue Mountain with its plunging Susquehanna River gap, and to the south the plumes of steam rising from Three Mile Island. I did not tour the Museum.
Back down State St. to the Capitol building, I then walked north on the railroad tracks to the Blue Mountain, where the PRR main line crosses the Susquehanna on the famous Rockville Bridge, 1902 (click the 3rd photo down, on the left, for the best view), now used by Norfolk Southern and Amtrak. Exquisitely picturesque, especially with the trains approaching from the direction of the setting sun. I thank the engineers for tolerating my lingering near the bridge while their long freights passed in both directions.
Back down south along Front St. I passed the Governer’s Mansion, dramatically set along the wide (but shallow) Susquehanna. Continuing walking south along the river, I reached the city center around dusk, just as the bridges and Capitol building were lighting up.
Twenty-three miles in all, and a very enjoyable city to walk. According to Wikipedia, Harrisburg was rated the second-most “distressed” city in the US in 1981. I am not sure what ‘distressed’ included, but I assume a mix of economic and social ills. Three Mile Island was 1979, when well over 100.000 evacuated the region. But in 1981, Stephen Reed was elected mayor, and has won every mayoral race since. His current term ends 2010. He’s a doer, apparently, and it was his influence that turned the city into the showplace it is today.