The Palisades crossing may be the hardest one, but like anything it depends on what time of day you go. It is a commuting road to NYC area. A while back you had to cross the Taconic State Parkway as well (it’s been relocated under the road), which was a lot worse then the Palisades.
Except the title of the pic says Trail over I-70. And the picture category (listed at bottom) says, “Trail & Blazes in Maryland & Pennsylvania”.
That does look like the crossing over I-70 in Western Maryland. I’ve passed under it many times.
It’s a concrete walkway with a fenced covering. There’s a little sign on it (visible from the roadway) that says, “Appalachian Trail.”
I know it crosses the Delaware via the I-80 bridge. As to the ins and outs, I’m not sure. I’ve hiked the AT on both sides of the Gap, but never made the crossing.
Very cool. I love when I drive through the country and see hand-written “Hikers Welcome” signs at folks’ houses.
I also used to hike up to a summit somewhere when on a hot day when the northbounders were coming through with a cooler full of cold beer and ice cream. It’s easy to make friends like that. 
Yep my bad.
Stephen Katz is a real person- his real name is apparently Matt Angerer. He’s appeared in several other Bryson books, notably Neither Here Nor There and The Life & Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid.
I don’t know; as a writer and traveller myself I know what it’s like to be seized with what’s known as “SLAGIATT”, or Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time. If you look at a map, the distances always seem somewhat manageable ("There’s only a few inches separating Melbourne and Sydney, I’m sure I can cycle between them in an afternoon, and maybe head onto Adelaide for dinner"). It’s only when you’re standing outside the arrivals terminal at LAX and realising that San Francisco is more than a 2 hour drive, or that London Heathrow Airport is inconveniently far away from Edinburgh Railway Station, or that they don’t take Australian Dollars as currency in New Zealand do you realise that maybe you’ve overestimated things. 
Having said that, Bryson’s a smart guy, so I daresay he did the maths (of course he did, he goes into detail in the book) and worked out that it wasn’t going to be feasible. But then, I’m more than prepared to grant him a deal of literary licence in the interests of storytelling.
Besides, what would a book on hiking the AT actually be like? “Day 42. More bloody trees!”
Having read A Walk In The Woods, it almost made me want to grab my passport, drive to the airport, and say “New England, Please!”- if not for the fact they’d probably put me on a plane to Armidale instead of Harper’s Ferry.
In all seriousness, it’s a great book, and despite “inaccuracies” I think it’s done a lot more to raise the trail’s profile (I’d never even heard of it until I read the book) than any single other work. Surely that’s got to be worth something?
There are many excellent books about hiking the AT. That’s why it irks me a bit that A Walk in the Woods is the only one that people think about.
It’d be hard not to write an interesting book with all the weirdos hiking the AT.
Not that I have anything against weirdos, but they are interesting.
Just in the interests of ensuring the record is correct (and keeping Martini from a potential SLAGIATT), Harper’s Ferry is not in (the North American) New England. It’s probably best described Mid-Atlantic.
Thanks for the correction- I knew it was in the general area (and there used to be a Federal Arsenal there), and it’s got a very quaint name. 
In the same way that France is in the same general area as Italy.
They share a border, if I’m not mistaken.
As do the mid-Atlantic states and New England. But Rome is not close to Paris, and Harper’s Ferry is not close to Hanover.
I realized when looking at this thread again that it gives the impression that most of the AT is spend crossing highways and waiting in line at post offices. Here’s another attempt at answering your question.
Based on my hike of a small portion (New York and New Jersey, plus day hikes in North Carolina and New Hampshire) and what I’ve read, the Trail does an amazing job of keeping you away from civilization. In New York, you do have to hop across the Palisades Parkway on foot in the middle of Harriman State Park. You cross the Hudson and the Delaware rivers the same way the cars do. Short portions of the trail are on local roads, but usually quiet ones in rural areas. The New Jersey part is predominantly not through parklands but just wends it way through populated areas and farmland, but somehow you rarely feel like civilization is just around the corner. Looking at the AT on a road atlas on New Jersey, I’m really amazed at how they put it together. It goes through the most densely populated part of the US but manages to be an oasis of calm.