The Susquehanna Valley is a region of low-lying land that borders the
Susquehanna River in the
U.S. states of
New York,
Pennsylvania, and
Maryland. The valley consists of areas that lie along the main branch of the river, which flows from
Upstate New York through Pennsylvania and Maryland into the
Chesapeake Bay, as well as areas that lie along the shorter
West Branch in Pennsylvania.[1]
History and architectural features
As of 2014, seventeen of the oldest
covered bridges in the United States were located in the Susquehanna Valley.[2]
Geography
Historians and environmentalists at the
Chesapeake Conservancy have described the Susquehanna River as the "lifeblood" of the Chesapeake Bay and also as "extension of the Susquehanna Valley that the Atlantic Ocean has steadily flooded over the last 15,000 years."[3]
Within Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna Valley is linked inextricably with the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which extends from Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland through Delaware, Pennsylvania and New York. Pennsylvania's connections to the watershed are "primarily in the counties along the Susquehanna River, the West Branch of the Susquehanna, and their tributaries," according to Shelby Splain. "Located in the middle of the commonwealth, about half of the land in Pennsylvania drains into it."[4]
^Ellis, History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
^Ellis, History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.