Tapeworm Railroad

Tyrone Township, PA · est. 1948

In the 1830s a modest wagon-making shop stood near here, run by John Studebaker before he packed up and joined the great westward migration. His decision seeded a dynasty: in 1852 his sons opened a wagon works in Indiana that grew into the largest maker of horse-drawn vehicles in the world. When the age of the horse gave way to the motorcar, the Studebaker firm made the leap in 1897, becoming one of America's earliest automakers.

Chambersburg, PA · est. 1953

Long before railroads criss-crossed the country, a Chambersburg man named Philip Berlin is credited with building the first American sleeping car for travelers. His car, fittingly named "Chambersburg," was running between Harrisburg and Chambersburg as early as 1838, in the very first years of American rail. He rests in the churchyard behind the marker.

Freedom Township, PA · est. 1997

David S. Stoner raised Sachs Covered Bridge across Marsh Creek in 1852, using the elegant lattice-truss design patented by Connecticut architect Ithiel Town to span 100 feet of water. Little more than a decade later, both Union and Confederate soldiers crossed its planks during the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, giving the quiet farm bridge a place in one of the war's most famous chapters. Retired from traffic after 1968 and battered by a 1996 flood, it was lovingly restored by Adams County as a scenic landmark.

Gettysburg, PA · est. 1954

Before Gettysburg was a name known to the nation, it was a crossroads where the Shippensburg-Baltimore and Philadelphia-Pittsburgh roads met, anchored by the tavern of Samuel Gettys. Taverns at such junctions were the gathering places of colonial life, and in 1775 men mustered here for Continental service as the Revolution began. The Gettys family's crossroads would later lend its name to the town and, eventually, to one of the most famous battles in American history.