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Pennsylvania 
State
bird, ruffed grouse. State flower, mountain laurel
State
tree, hemlock.
Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh , both lively and vibrant tourist destinations, are at opposite
ends of the state. The three hundred miles between them, though predominantly
agricultural, are topographically diverse. There are over one hundred state
parks, with green rolling countryside in the east, brooding forests in
the west, and in the northeast, the rivers, lakes and valleys of the Poconos.
Lancaster County , home to traditional Amish farmers, and the Gettysburg
battlefield both heave with busloads of day-trippers, while 
the
Hershey chocolate factory, minutes away from Harrisburg , the capital,
draws thousands of cocoa-loving visitors each year.
Erie a nice kicked back little town on the Great Lakes and also focuses on warships of different periods; the elegant US Brig Niagara is usually moored outside and is part of the museum.
November 19,1863 Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the National Cemetery. His two-minute speech, in memory of all the soldiers who died, is acknowledged as one of the most powerful orations in American history
TheGettysburg
Address
Four
score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent,
a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal.
Now
we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any
nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a
great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that
field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that
that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this.
But,
in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can
not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled
here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it
can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to
be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to
the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure
of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have
died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
Harrisburg The ornate capitol at Third and State is undeniably beautiful; at its dedication in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt called it "the handsomest building I ever saw." Italian Renaissance in style, it has a dome modeled after St Peter's in Rome (Mon-Sat 9am-4pm; free). The complex includes the archeological and military artifacts, decorative arts, tools and machinery exhibited in the free four-floor State Museum of Pennsylvania , a cylindrical building that holds a planetarium.
W.C. Fields in the 1930s as in his famous epitaph: "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia"), the city underwent a remarkable resurgence preparing for the nation's bicentennial celebrations in 1976. Philadelphia's strength today is its great energy fueled by history, strong cultural institutions
Central Pennsylvania , cut north to south by the broad Susquehanna River , has no major cities, though the state capital, Harrisburg , is an excellent base from which to explore sights that include the Hershey chocolate empire and the rolling Amish farmlands of Lancaster County to the east, and the Civil War site of Gettysburg on the state's southern border. To the north, the mighty forests of the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania," around Williamsport , reveal the legacy of its great nineteenth-century lumber wealth in mansion-lined streets. Cities like Johnstown , beyond the dramatic Allegheny Mountains in the west, and Scranton are industrial towns with little of interest for the casual visitor.
Western Pennsylvania , a key point for frontier trade and an important thoroughfare to the West, was the focus of the fighting between the English and the French in the seven-year French and Indian War for colonial and maritime power (1756-63). It grew to industrial prominence in the nineteenth century, with the exploitation of its coal resources gathering pace after the Civil War, and the opening of the world's first oil well at Titusville (now Drake Well Memorial Park) in northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859.
Today,
tourism in western Pennsylvania, like the now-quiet coal and steel industries,
is concentrated around the surprisingly appealing city of Pittsburgh .
To the south of the city, the Laurel Highlands features Frank Lloyd Wright's
not-to-be-missed architectural masterpiece, Fallingwater , as well as nearby
Ohiopyle State Park and the Youghiogheny River , which offer plenty of
outdoor activities. Another great wilderness area to explore is the lush
Allegheny National Forest in the north, which begins twenty miles from
I-80. Erie's Presque Isle State Park , in the very northwest corner of
the state, is also worth a visit for its sandy beaches and wooded hiking
trails.
