Western Pennsylvania is distinctive from the rest of the state by several important and complex factors: • The initial difficulty of transportation access from the east involved many miles of parallel ridges of the
Appalachian Mountains, and then the broken hills and valleys of the
Allegheny Plateau, all of which were covered in thick forests. The initial method of access from areas east of the Appalachians was to travel southbound outside of Pennsylvania, then follow the
Potomac River northwest through
Maryland and
Virginia and reenter Pennsylvania in the state's southwest corner. Various methods of more direct transport were later tried, including a canal system westbound over the mountains and then, later, the
Pennsylvania Railroad, which extended the railroad systems of the
East Coast west to Pittsburgh and the
Ohio Valley. One of the best known transportation innovations, which expanded access to Western Pennsylvania, is the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, which was the first modern limited access highway in
North America. • The initial challenge confronting Western Pennsylvania was economic marketing of a limited number of goods that could stand such high freight costs. The insensitivity of the new
U.S. federal government to the marketing problems in the west ultimately led to the
Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania, an event that seriously challenged the political viability of the United States after its successful establishment following the
American Revolutionary War. Later efforts to access the region included promoting access to it via the
Ohio River, with Pittsburgh a barge and steamboat center of the mid-continent. In the 21st century, Pittsburgh is still strongly centered around its rivers; the port of Pittsburgh ranks 13th by tonnage transport in the nation, surpassing even the
Port of Philadelphia in tonnage because of the heavy shipping of bulk coal by
barge inland on the rivers. Locally, a system of agriculture arose suitable to Western Pennsylvania's rugged terrain, emphasizing animal husbandry and dairying but with few exportable vegetable crops. The search for some sort of exportable agricultural specialty perhaps also encouraged the rise of the sauce industry and its first location at Sharpsburg in what was later to become the large
Heinz company. • The search for exploitable resources first resulted with the development of huge
bituminous coal deposits in the area for use in a growing iron foundry sector. Industrialist
Andrew Carnegie later led a large
steel manufacturer in the region, which became known for its industrial manufacturing. The region also had large
glass,
pottery,
brickmaking, and
ceramic industries, which took advantage of the coal and the sand and clay in local soils. The local glass industry produced 45 percent of the nation's output in glass by the 1860s and more than 80 percent of the output by the 1920s. • Other exploitable resources in Western Pennsylvania included the
first oil well in the world in
Titusville and the rise of the US petroleum industry. Another was widespread deforestation of the outlying areas and their subsequent reforestation under
Gifford Pinchot, who instituted the first large scale government sponsored timber management effort in the U.S.. During this time of intensive exploitation of forests a whole new sector, the wood chemistry industry, appeared and then later vanished. The forested areas of the region include a large animal population, which is the basis for supports the famous "Pennsylvania deer-hunting" cultural ethos. The first day of deer-hunting season is a de facto unofficial holiday in much of the central and northern regions of the state, and absence from work or school is generally tolerated with no explanation necessary. • Since the early 1950s, a renaissance occurred in the development of cultural institutions and abatement of pollution in Pittsburgh and its surrounding area. The effects of this increase in
livability are particularly apparent in the Golden Triangle district of
Downtown Pittsburgh, which at one point had been plagued with so much industrial haze that drivers used their headlights in mid-day. However, that social improvement has not always been accompanied by a serious plan of regional economic development to assess what, precisely, should fill the income void after the departure of steel. In addition, the city of Pittsburgh continues to become depopulated and has recently been put under state supervision of its finances. • Culturally, the distinctiveness of Western Pennsylvania is underlined by the existence of a unique local dialect called "Pittsburghese" or
Pittsburgh English, sometimes affectionately termed the "yinzer" dialect from its use of the term "yins" (also spelled "yunz, "yinz", "youns", etc.) as the plural form of "you". This is probably a legacy of
Ulster-Scots settlement in the area. Western Pennsylvanians also refer to soft drinks as "pop" while in the eastern half of the state it is referred to as "soda." • The
Erie Triangle and the city of
Erie give Pennsylvania a port along the
Great Lakes. This region is unique within western Pennsylvania in that it maintains stronger geographic and cultural connections with western New York than it does with western Pennsylvania, due in large part to its identification with the eastern Great Lakes region, rather than Appalachia. This is reflected in the city and county of Erie sharing far more similarities with
Buffalo and southwestern New York than it does with Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania. The Erie region is also known for its distinct agriculture, centered on grapes and other fruit, because of the moderating climatic influence, in both summer and fall, of
Lake Erie. (In winter, the area is often inundated with
"lake-effect" snow.) There are also small commercial fresh-water fisheries and many streams and smaller lakes with a variety of fish to catch, including yellow perch and walleye. • In
Stonycreek Township is the
memorial and crash site of
United Airlines Flight 93, the "Let's Roll" flight that occurred on
9/11 in 2001 after passengers attempted to overpower the plane's hijackers. The site is an informal patriotic shrine with many hand-made mementos voluntarily gracing the area. There is a movement to add the site to the National Park System. It is a startling coincidence that the Stonycreek site is comparatively close to the other centuries-earlier locations of military engagements in Western Pennsylvania, such as
Fort Duquesne and the area of the
Whiskey Rebellion. These locations were on a strategic route from eastern settlements in Pennsylvania to the south and west in
Virginia, and later
Washington, D.C. ==Sports==