Gettysburg to Harrisburg
Dad and I drive north from Washington, D.C., to Gettysburg National Military Park, commemorating the turning point in the American Civil War. We stop for lunch at Gettysburg Eddie’s, which celebrates local baseball Hall-of-Famer Eddie Plank. We finish in Harrisburg for a look at the state capitol building.
Dad and I started the day with a pretty drive on two-lane rural highways, bearing north toward our next ballpark in Harrisburg. We rolled through forests and farms and marveled at seeing so much corn as we crossed the state line from Maryland to Pennsylvania.
Gettysburg
We made our first stop at Gettysburg National Military Park, the site of the historic three-day battle in July 1863 that is considered to be the turning point in the American Civil War. The park includes a good museum, walking trails, and a long driving route through the battlefields and memorials. But its most spectacular feature is its incredible cyclorama.Painted 1883 by French artist Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, The Battle of Gettysburg is a 360-degree cylindrical painting, or cyclorama. At 42 feet high and 337 feet in circumference, it successfully creates a sense of immersion, depicting the wide-ranging battles underway as Confederate General Robert E. Lee orders an infantry assault on Major General George G. Meade's Union front lines. Sounds, lights, and narration accompany the work and complete the effect. It’s remarkable.
We made a quick tour of the surprisingly large museum and made our way back to the car to get lunch.
Gettysburg Eddie's
Dad and I spend a lot of time planning our routes before these trips — not just which way we’ll go and what sights we’ll see, but where we should have lunch each day. I take a first pass at our options — weighing reviews, the vibe, and the food — and give Dad a list of finalists from which to choose.On this day, there was no such need. It had to be Gettysburg Eddie’s.
Located right next to the national military park, Gettysburg Eddie’s is a casual restaurant honoring local hero and baseball Hall of Famer Eddie Plank (Class of 1946). Plank pitched from 1901-1917, mostly for the Philadelphia Athletics. Pitching in the “dead-ball” era, when scores were typically low, he finished his career with an ERA of 2.35. But his 326 career wins attest to his skills in any era.
And there is a perfect ending for this story: After he retired from baseball, Plank took a job at the national military park as a battlefield tour guide until he died in 1926.
Harrisburg
Less than an hour later, we were in Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. Located on the east side of the Susquehanna River, Harrisburg has a population of about 51,000.English captain John Smith journeyed up the river in 1608 and made the first European contact with the Susquehanna tribe living here. Its strategic location and heavy railroad traffic made it an ideal candidate for investment in the Industrial Age, when Harrisburg became a major center of steel production. Its more recent history following the decline of industry in the northeast has been plagued by financial woes. Harrisburg was the first city ever to be charged with securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and it filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in 2011. A few years later, former mayor Stephen Reed was convicted of corruption charges relating to the misuse of bond money to purchase Civil War and Wild West artifacts during his nearly 30-year tenure as mayor. But the city seems to have turned things around, with recent balanced budgets and brighter prospects.
We stopped for a look at the Pennsylvania State Capitol building, completed in 1906 in a blend of neoclassical and Renaissance styles. Its attractive dome features bright green tiles and is topped with a gilded statue called Commonwealth, created in 1905 by American sculptor and painter Roland Hinton Perry.
Next door, the Pennsylvania State Museum — the type of place we would visit when arriving in a new city to explore the history, geology, culture, flora, and fauna of the state — was closed. We drove off to our hotel to check in and rest up for the next ballgame.