Page 180 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

years this was joined by four more mills. All this changed the rural state capital into one of the most highly industrialized and polluted places in the state.
Pennsylvania Railroad built repair shops to maintain its rolling stock. The rails ran the entire eastern side of length of Harrisburg.
This industry blossomed unto the middle years of the twentieth century when the mills closed in favour of more profitable and newer plant elsewhere. The railroad also declined.
As a result, huge parts of Harrisburg became derelict. At the same time, middle class people now owned automobiles and could live in more pleasant suburbs, meaning that the city proper lost population.
The problems of the city were not helped by its reputation as close to the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which suffered a partial meltdown in 1979.
All of these problems have been difficult to overcome despite attempts to rebuilt and improve the downtown area of the city.
Harrisburg today.
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