Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Friendship Hill National Historic Site, Flight 93 National Memorial, Johnstown Flood National Memorial, Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site, PA

Weather: High 65/Low 45, Cloudy, RAINY, windy and cold
We visited all 5 sites in one day.

NPS Stop 14-Fort Necessity National Battlefield: https://www.nps.gov/fone/index.htm

This battlefield is considered to be the beginning of the French-Indian war in 1754. France was in control of the Ohio Valley and a young George Washington was sent to build a road and notify the French they were not welcome. It is not known who fired the first shot but it is agreed that this was the beginning of the French-Indian war. George and his troops surrendered to the French and signed the terms of surrender (written in French and smeared in the rain) not knowing that it said he was responsible for the assassination of the french officer, Jumonville. 
 
NPS Stop 15-Friendship Hill National Historic Site: https://www.nps.gov/frhi/index.htm

Friendship Hill was purchased by Albert Gallatin who was Secretary of the Treasury during the Jefferson and Madison administrations and played an important role in American History. The headwaters of the Missouri were named Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin in his honor. 
His vision for this location would be a stop over for travelers along the Monongahela River. It is a very nice location overlooking the river and he expanded the buildings over time but his dream never materialized.

NPS Stop 16-Flight 93 National Memorial: https://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm

Where were you and what were you doing on 9/11/2001? This memorial brought back all the emotions of that day. They share all the facts and have voice recordings from the cockpit and some of the passengers to their loved ones as this horrible event unfolded. Flight 93 was only 20 minutes away from the Capitol Building and thanks to those aboard, the aircraft never reached its target.

NPS Stop 17-Johnstown Flood National Memorial: https://www.nps.gov/jofl/index.htm

This site interprets the events of the Johnstown Flood of 1889 which killed over 2000 people. The reasons for the dam breaking are many and mother nature was one of them. They have a recorded interview from one of the survivors who lived through the event at the age of 16.


NPS Stop 18-Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site: https://www.nps.gov/alpo/index.htm 

We had no idea what this site was about but it is a very interesting story. In 1834, there was a huge movement of people and goods to the wild west. Rivers were the highways at that time and there was this problem of how to get the people and goods over the Allegheny Mountains. A trip by horse and wagon took 23 days to get from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. Canals and locks were built to help the boats navigate the rivers and discussions for a tunnel through the mountains were discussed. Approved was a series of 10 inclined planes (5 on each side) which were built to haul large canal boats divided into three pieces, each mounted on train cars which climbed and descended on a train track driven by stationary stem engines and a 3 1/2 inch hemp rope. This new adventure reduced the trip to only 5 days. This operation worked very well for over 20 years and was replaced by larger steam locomotives and a more gradual inclined track. Amazing!


Photos: https://www.nationalparkplanningguides.com/photos.html 
Current location: https://trackmytour.com/5pTZ3