Education: Nova Allegheny

'"...Even if it's as Big as a Mountain!"

The first railroad to circumvent the Allegheny Mountains, the Allegheny Portage Railroad was the finishing piece of the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal. "The Portage," opened in 1834, marking the first time that there was one, direct route between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. All things to all people, it served merchants, passengers, slaves in pursuit of freedom, and soldiers from the Mexican War.'

That is the opener of the Web Side about "Allegheny Portage Railroad"
(http://www.nps.gov/alpo/index.htm)

But you do not have to visit the real National Parks of Western Pennsylvania to get an idea about. There is an equivalent in the virtual environment. Just jump over to the VIBE Grid and search for the region "Allegheny" on NOVA to start your tour on the "Allegheny Portage Railroad".

I will try to give a rough overview of the things that will await you here, not going too much in detail. Nova Saunders would be happy to welcome you here. So it is better you explore it more deeper, then I will review it here. ;-)
On the arrival point you will find a big blue board giving you first information about the railroad and opposite you will see an old map of the location in the real environment.

With all that pre-knowledge just walk through the viaduct.

And behind it, you walk on the rails into a scenery towards an old steam engine. An old photo on a board shows another engine, slightly different to the one on the virtual rails.

A stone house with a bigger front yard will catch your attention. It is a replica of a real existing one called "Lemon House".

What it is about the house, you will read on a blue board, and another board will tell you a Web address where to get more info about it (A better solution would be, to place an URL Giver into the board object then to type it off the board, for my opinion).

At the back right side of the "Lemon House" another board is situated, showing a bit of the restoration of the building.

A little bit off is another building of interest. But it looks like an old barn typical for the region but of no real historical importance.

I like the look of the old wagons of the railway, do they remind of a ship hull, cut in half and placed on two flatbed trailors.

At the other end of the rails you can see the front of the rebuild engine house as you can see on the photo boards on each side of the building plus another information board about it.

Walking through the entrance you will walk towards the town of "Portage", but this will be saved for my next story about NOVA.
As you can see, there is a lot of historical information you can gather here on "Allegheny" region.
Get over here, even if you are not that much interested in history. Beside the historical interest, this is a place to be inspired by the buildings and the set ups. Have a look !



Destination:
VIBE Grid, Region Allegheny
nova.bio-se.info:9000:allegheny