Every Lake
Pennsylvania
A rectangle broken twice — by the Delaware River on the east and the wedge that bought a Lake Erie port.
Pennsylvania in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Pennsylvania.
About Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is a rectangle that reality interrupted twice. The Mason-Dixon line rules the south edge, the 42nd parallel the north, but the Delaware River wanders down the east side and the Erie Triangle juts off the northwest corner. Between them the Appalachians run southwest to northeast in long parallel ridges and valleys that no surveyor could straighten, so the county lines in the middle of the board bend with them. The Susquehanna, the Allegheny and the Monongahela drain most of it, meeting the Ohio at Pittsburgh, and the Poconos and the Alleghenies carry the high ground.
The state ratified on December 12, 1787, second of the thirteen. Harrisburg has been the capital since 1812, on the Susquehanna and central enough to reach from both ends. The Erie Triangle was bought from the federal government in 1792 for the sole purpose of giving the state a deep-water port on the lake. Sixty-seven counties, the Pennsylvania Turnpike running coast-to-coast across the middle as America's first long-distance superhighway, and I-80, I-81 and I-79 cutting the ridges make this a map people trace with a finger.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 23 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
