7/8/15 - Milton, PA

We left Confluence this morning and drove to Milton, PA.  We stopped at three national historic sites today.  The first one was Flight 93 National Memorial.  This is where Flight 93 was flown into the ground on 9-11.  The names of the 40 people who died are on a memorial wall.  They are in the process of building a really large visitor center.  I suppose it will house a lot of artifacts and information of that day.  One of the victims was named Edward Porter Felt.  Jim wondered whether he might be a relative - Felt was his grandmother's last name.

The next stop was Johnstown Flood National Memorial.  This was a horrific flood in 1889 that wiped out multiple towns after a dam broke because of heavy rain.  Over 2,200 people died and there was massive property damage also.  The visitors center was on a hill overlooking the site of the dam that breached.

Lastly we stopped by Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site.  This was the first railroad constructed through the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania.  It was a series of 10 inclines about 36 miles long in use from 1834 – 1854 and it connected two main lines of the Pennsylvania Canal from Johnstown to Hollidaysburg. Canal boats were put on railroad cars and pulled over the steep inclines using ropes pulled by steam engines.  On the section we stopped at was the Lemon House, a tavern passengers stopped at on the trip.