Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GETTYSBURG
This tranquil, compact and history-laden town, 145 miles west of Philadelphia, saw
one of the Civil War's most decisive and bloody battles. It's also where Lincoln de-
livered his Gettysburg Address. Much of the ground where Robert E Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia and Maj Gen Joseph Hooker's Union Army of the Potomac skir-
mished and fought can be explored either in your own car with a map and guide, on
an audio CD tour, a bus tour or a two-hour guided ranger tour ($65 per vehicle) -
the latter is most recommended, but if short on time, it's still worth driving the nar-
row lanes past fields with dozens of monuments marking significant sites and mo-
ments in the battle. The centerpiece of any visit (and where tours are booked) is
the massive new Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center (
717-334-1124; www.gettysburgfoundation.org ; 1195 Baltimore Pike; adult/child $12.50/8.50;
8am-5pm Nov-Mar, to 6pm Apr-Oct) several miles south of town. It houses an incredible
museum filled with artifacts and displays exploring every nuance of the battle, a
film explaining Gettsyburg's context, and Paul Philippoteaux's 377ft cyclorama
painting of Pickett's Charge.
The annual Civil War Heritage Days , a festival held in the first weekend of July, fea-
tures living-history encampments and battle reenactments drawing aficionados
from near and far.
For accommodations, try the stately three-story Victorian Brickhouse Inn (
717-338-9337; www.brickhouseinn.com ; 452 Baltimore St; r with breakfast $119-189; ) , built c
1898, a wonderful B&B with charming rooms and an outdoor patio. For a meal in
Gettysburg's oldest home, built in 1776, head to Dobbin House Tavern (
717-334-2100; 89 Steinwehr Ave; mains $8-30; 11:30am-9pm) , which serves heaping sand-
wiches and more elaborate meat and fish meals in kitschy themed dining rooms.
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Pennsylvania Wilds
Interspersed throughout this rural region are regal buildings and grand mansions, rem-
nants of a time when lumber, coal and oil brought great wealth and the world's attention
to this corner of Pennsylvania. Several museums (oil ones in Titusville and Bradford and
one on lumber in Galeton) tell the boom and bust industrial story. But natural resources
of another kind remain - known as 'the Wilds' - roads (especially scenic Rte 6 ) and
hundreds of miles of trails snake through vast national forests and state parks.
The Kinzua railroad viaduct, once the highest and one of the longest railroad suspen-
sion bridges in the world and partly destroyed by a tornado in 2011, has been converted
 
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