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HomeGeography & TravelStates & Other Subdivisions

Pennsylvania
state, United States
Alternate titles: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Keystone State

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By Carol Lewis Thompson | See All • Edit History

FAST FACTS

 2-Min Summary Facts & Stats

flag of Pennsylvania
 

Seal of Pennsylvania
 
Pennsylvania state bird
 

Pennsylvania state flower

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Capital:

Harrisburg

Population:

 
(2020) 13,002,700

Governor:

 
Tom Wolf (Democrat)

Date Of Admission:

 
Dec. 12, 17872

U.S. Senators:

 
Robert P. Casey (Democrat) Pat Toomey (Republican)

See all facts & stats →

Pennsylvania, officially Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, constituent state of the United
States of America, one of the original 13 American colonies. The state is approximately rectangular
in shape and stretches about 300 miles (480 km) from east to west and 150 miles (240 km) from
north to south. It is bounded to the north by Lake Erie and New York state; to the east by New York
and New Jersey; to the south by Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia; and to the west by the
panhandle of West Virginia and by Ohio. Harrisburg, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian
Mountains, is the capital.

PennsylvaniaEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Pine Creek Gorge

Pine Creek Gorge, the “Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania,” north-central Pennsylvania.
Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images
Pennsylvania is classified as a Middle Atlantic state, along with New York, New Jersey, Delaware,
and Maryland. Its central location on the Eastern Seaboard is sometimes said to be the source of its
nickname, the Keystone State. It does not, however, touch the Atlantic Ocean at any point. Water
nonetheless has been nearly as crucial in the state’s growth as the wealth of its earth. The Delaware
River forms the boundary between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In the northwest a small
panhandle separates Ohio and New York and forms a 40-mile (65-km) waterfront on Lake Erie,
giving the state access to the iron ore barges and other commerce of the Great Lakes.

BRITANNICA QUIZ
States of America: Fact or Fiction?
You may be familiar with New York and Nebraska, but are there 11 U.S. states with names that begin with
the letter "N?" See if your knowledge of names is nimble—or numb—in this quiz of states and cities.
The state has two great metropolitan areas. Philadelphia is a part of the East Coast population belt
stretching from Boston to Norfolk, Virginia. It is a major harbour on the Delaware River and one of
the world’s busiest shipping centres. In the west, Pittsburgh lies on the eastern edge of the great
industrial region extending along the Great Lakes plains to Chicago. Area 46,054 square miles
(119,280 square km). Population (2020) 13,002,700.
Land
Relief
The landforms of Pennsylvania had their origin about 500 million years ago, when a vast interior
sea, up to several hundred miles wide, occupied the area from New England to Alabama. For about
250 million years, the rivers originating from an extensive mountain chain on the east poured
sediments into the great Appalachian downwarp basin. Great swamps prevailed in southwestern
Pennsylvania for millions of years and provided the vegetation that ultimately became the coal
beds of the area.

Pennsylvania featuresEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

United States: Middle Atlantic region
The Middle Atlantic region.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Beginning about 250 million years ago, plate-tectonic movement folded the flat-lying sediment
into upwarps and downwarps. The heat created by this pressure also metamorphosed the rocks,
changing the sandstone into quartzite, limestone into marble, and granite into gneiss. The pressure
from the plate movement was confined to southeastern Pennsylvania, creating the Piedmont and
Ridge and Valley provinces. The rocks of the Appalachian Plateau remained essentially flat-lying,
and the dissection of the plateau has been created by erosion.
Pennsylvania includes parts of large physiographic regions that extend beyond its borders; those
regions crossing the eastern and central parts of the state parallel one another along a sweeping
northeast-southwest diagonal orientation. In the southeastern part of the state is a section of the
Atlantic Coastal Plain, a narrow strip of sandy low-lying land immediately adjacent to the Delaware
River. This region has played a major role in Pennsylvania history. It was the site of William Penn’s
settlement and the initial city of Philadelphia. Immediately inland from the Coastal Plain is the
Piedmont province, a gently rolling, well-drained plain that is rarely more than 500 feet (150
metres) above sea level; the eastern part is the Piedmont Upland. The boundary between the
Piedmont and the Coastal Plain is known as the fall line, with hard rock to the west and soft rock to
the east. The Piedmont Lowland parallels the Piedmont Upland to its northwest. It is made of
sedimentary rocks into which volcanic rocks have been intruded. Some of these volcanic rocks
make ridges. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought there, the Northern army on the high ridges
having the advantage over the Southern forces on the plains. The limestone rocks have weathered
into fertile lowlands such as the Conestoga Lowlands of Lancaster county. Farther to the northwest
lie two segments of a larger mountain range. The southern prong, extending to the Carlisle area, is
the northernmost extension of the Blue Ridge system. The northern portion, known as
the Reading Prong, is a small section of the larger New England topographic region. There is a
major gap between these prongs.

Inland from the Blue Ridge is one of the country’s most distinctive topographic regions, the Ridge
and Valley Province. It consists of long, narrow valleys and parallel ridges aligned over a long
distance. As seen from space, it appears as if an enormous rake had been dragged along the
backbone of the Appalachians from northeast to southwest. None of the ridges rises above the
valley floor more than 1,000 feet (300 metres), and nowhere does the elevation reach 3,000 feet
(900 metres). On the east is the Great Valley, which stretches more than 1,200 miles (1,930 km)
from Pennsylvania to Alabama. To the west and north of the Ridge and Valley Province is the
Appalachian Plateau, an area of nearly 30,000 square miles (77,700 square km). The Allegheny
Front, more than 1,500 feet (450 metres) high, divides the two provinces. With no passes, it is the
most formidable obstacle to east-west transportation in Pennsylvania. Almost everywhere the
plateau surface has been dissected by rivers into a chaos of valleys and hills. Mount Davis is the
highest point in the state at 3,213 feet (979 metres). However, elevations range from about 1,000 to
3,000 feet. On the northwest is the narrow Lake Erie Plain, which rises in a series of steps from the
lakeshore to the high escarpment of the Appalachian Plateau.

Drainage
Pennsylvania has three major river systems. In the east is the Delaware River, fed mainly by
the Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers. In the central part of the state is the Susquehanna, draining the
largest section of the state; it is a wide, shallow stream that meanders finally into Maryland
and Chesapeake Bay. In the west is the Ohio River—formed by the confluence of
the Allegheny (north) and Monongahela (south) rivers at Pittsburgh—from where it flows
westward to the Mississippi River. Minor systems lead into Lake Erie in the northwest and
the Potomac River from the southwest.
Pittsburgh
Fort Pitt Bridge over Monongahela River, Pittsburgh.
© Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock.com
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