Erie, PA Summary

Erie, 126 miles north of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania’s northwestern corner, is the state’s only port on the Great Lakes. Its name derives from the Eriez Native Americans who inhabited the area when the French explored it in the early 1600s.

With 102,640 residents, Erie is Pennsylvania’s third-largest city. It is a major manufacturing and commercial city spawned by access to Lake Erie, the Erie Canal (1825), and railroads, which arrived in the 1850s. Its factories manufacture plastics, locomotives, boilers, engines, turbines, and paper.

In 1753 a French expedition built Fort de la Presque Isle on the peninsula that juts into Lake Erie. They later abandoned the site, which was then occupied by the British. Ottawa Native American Chief Pontiac organized a confederacy of Great Lakes and Ohio Valley tribes in 1763, who attacked and defeated the British. Still, a permanent settlement was established at Erie by 1795.

On September 10, 1813, during the War of 1812, American Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry used ships built at Erie to defeat the British Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie. The Erie Maritime Museum is the home port of the reconstructed US Brig Niagara, to which Perry transferred his command after his first brig, the Lawrence, was severely damaged.

The sunken remains of the Niagara were raised from the bottom of Misery Bay in 1913. In addition to exhibits depicting the region’s maritime past, the museum features a replica of the mid-ship section of the Lawrence, and a section that was blasted with live ammunition fired from the current Niagara’s cannon.

Nearby Presque Isle State Park, a day-use-only area, occupies the sandy spit that extends into Lake Erie. It offers beaches, hiking, biking, swimming, scuba diving, waterskiing, boating, fishing, birdwatching, and picnicking. In winter, cross-country skiing, iceskating, and iceboating are popular.

The Experience Children’s Museum houses interactive science and humanities exhibits, and has programs designed to teach children about energy, light, force and motion, weather safety, fossils, recycling, and much more.

The Erie Summer Arts Festival is held each June in Liberty Street Park, and features local, regional and national artists and performers. The four-day Harborfest is held in mid-summer, with musicians, hotair balloons, and even a US Navy SEAL sky-diving demonstration.

Erie can be reached by train, bus or by car via I-90, I-86, and I-79; it has an international airport.