Water Bodies: Susquehanna River

This photo taken by a space-shuttle astronaut includes portions of the Appalachian Mountains and the Susquehanna River. The river flows from north to south. You can see evidence of farming, the main land use in the in the valleys and rolling hills—in particular, farming activities in the Lancaster area with the Amish communities known for their old-fashioned farming practices. A segment of the old Lincoln Highway (U.S. Highway 30) that connects Philadelphia and Pittsburgh is barely visible in the bottom third of the photograph. Major cities along this highway are Lancaster, York, and Hanover (east to west). This route was one of the major arteries that connected the more densely settled eastern seaboard with the western frontier in the 1800s and early 1900s.