Gaps of the Allegheny
Videos
The gaps of the Allegheny, meaning gaps in the Allegheny Ridge in west-central Pennsylvania, is a series of escarpment eroding water gaps along the saddle between two higher barrier ridge-lines in the
USGS - Appalachians Mountain chain showing the lines of the barrier ridges in central, western, and northwestern Pennsylvania. Counting the Hudson Valley north of the Catskills in New York and the southern end of the chain on the Georgian plains, there are exactly three narrow areas where water gaps allowed climbing up to mountain passes allowing passage across the mountains was possible to animal pulled transport vehicles.
This profile of the Allegheny Portage Railroad crossing the Allegheny Front gives valuable perspective at how the escarpment of the front and steepness of the gaps of the Allegheny created the final barrier range preventing easy settlement of the colonial and post-revolutionary-war west (today's Mid-west). It also illustrates the upland nature of the western side of the Front, the Allegheny Plateau but less clearly demonstrates the general barrier range nature of the other
The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands division. The physio
An aerial view of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, showing (from center to right): Wills, Evitts, and Tussey Mountains in December 2006
Ridges and valleys near Norton, Virginia in Wise County, Virginia
An aerial view Massanutten Mountain, including the south fork of the Shenandoah River (on left) and part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia
Blue Mountain in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania