Travel with Terri
Pennsylvania Road Trip: A Ride around the Monopoly Board
By Terri Marshall, Photos by Greg Holder
Monopoly has always been one of my favorite board games. I was not always great at acquiring the best properties and populating those properties with houses and hotels, but I always knew it was a good thing to acquire all the railroads – Pennsylvania, Short Line, B&O and Reading. Collect all four and you get $200 when someone lands on any of them! Trains made Pennsylvania an industrial giant, so it is certainly understandable that Pennsylvania resident, Charles Darwell – the reported inventor of Monopoly – would include railroads in his board game. A road trip through Pennsylvania will provide plenty of railroad sights and many other interesting things along the way.
Take a ride on the Reading with me. Reading, Pennsylvania is a real place and yes, it is also a real railroad. Located approximately 60 miles north of Philadelphia, Reading makes a pleasant and interesting stop on a Pennsylvania road trip. The area is filled with outlet malls, has a significant Civil War history and is, of course, known for its railroads. While in Reading you can visit The Reading Railroad Heritage Museum which features rail cars, locomotives, documents and maps of the Reading Railroad to learn more about this famous railroad. http://readingrailroad.org/museum
Take a ride through Greater Reading to experience its Civil War Trail, Covered Bridge Tour or the Hex Barn Art Tour. The best-known symbol of the Pennsylvania Dutch, the hex sign, adorns the sides of barns throughout the farmland surrounding Greater Reading. This uniquely American art form can also be found on quilts, tombstones and needlework throughout the region. http://www.takearide.com
Perched above the town of Reading you will find a very unusual roadside attraction – The Pagoda. Seven stories high, 28 feet wide and 50 feet long, The Pagoda stands 620 feet above the City of Reading and 886 feet above seal level. It is the only Pagoda in the United States and the only Pagoda in the world with a fireplace and chimney. Built in 1908 by William A. Whitman, Sr. to cover his stone quarry, the Pagoda was originally intended to be a resort hotel. 
However, due to liquor licensing problems, the hotel resort never opened and the structure was later deeded to the city. Before the days of radio broadcasting, the lights on the Pagoda were used to relay messages to the citizens of Reading through the use of Morse Code – white light was a dash and red light was a dot. Today the Pagoda lights flash at 9pm every Christmas Eve to let the children in town know that Santa is on his way! http://readingpagoda.com
Listed on the National Registry of Historical Places, the Abraham Lincoln – a Wyndham historic hotel – provides visitors with an excellent lodging option. The hotel made international headlines in 1932 when John Phillips Sousa passed away in his guestroom following a rehearsal with the famous Ringold Band which, of course, lead to ghost tales and stories of hauntings! The hotel played host to everyone who was anyone in its early decades including Eleanor Roosevelt, Gene Autry and Ozzie and Harriet. The ballroom was used to house soldiers on cots during wartime. Restored to its original historic splendor at the turn of the century, the hotel provides the perfect lodging choice – tuba playing ghost or not! http://www.wyndham.com
Across the Monopoly board from the Reading Railroad is the Pennsylvania Railroad. And across the state nestled in the Allegheny Mountains near Altoona, Pennsylvania you will find an engineering marvel. Completed in 1854 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, Horseshoe Curve was designed by John Edgar Thomson and Herman Haupt as part of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s main line to the west. It has been in continuous operation ever since. Prior to the building of the curve, crossing the Allegheny Mountains was costly and dangerous. Its importance to railroad traffic was such that it was guarded by Union soldiers during the American Civil War. Nazis also attempted to sabotage it in Operation Pastorius during World War II. Today the location is a popular tourist attraction with more than 50 trains passing through the area daily. There is a visitors center and a track side observation area accessible by many many stairs or – if you are not that energetic – a funicular railway. The track side viewing area makes a perfect picnic stop while traveling through the area. What child doesn’t get excited about the big choo choos? Grown-up children too!
Down the mountain from Horseshoe Curve is the town the railroad built…literally. Irish immigrants came to the United States to work on the construction of Horseshoe Curve and the town of Altoona was born to provide housing for the workers and their families. Although not as bustling as it was in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Altoona is historically significant and makes an interesting stop on a Pennsylvania road trip. The downtown area is home to the Railroaders Memorial Museum which is dedicated to revealing, interpreting, commemorating and celebrating the significant contributions of railroaders to American life and industry. There are interactive exhibits, rail cars, model railroad layouts, a children’s learning center and even Kelly’s Bar complete with a wax bartender. The “drinks” are wax too so I wouldn’t recommend consumption. http://www.railroadcity.com
Bring your Monopoly game to life with a road trip through Pennsylvania – it’s a ride worth taking!
Terri is a freelance writer with regular columns on travel, chocolate and bar reviews. She is busy each month visiting new places to bring unique travel destinations and events to you. Yes, it is a sacrifice – but she is willing to do that for her readers! You can see more of Terri’s writing at www.examiner.com where she is the National Chocolate Examiner and at www.barzz.net. You can contact Terri at [email protected]