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| Johnstown, Pennsylvania | ||||||||
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Clockwise from top left: (1) Downtown, (2) View of Johnstown from Inclined Plane (3) Inclined Plane (4) Point Stadium (5) University of Pittsburgh (6) The Stone Bridge
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| Nickname(s): Flood City; Hockeyville, USA | ||||||||
 Location of Cambria County in Pennsylvania |
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 Location of Johnstown in Cambria County |
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| Country | United States | |||||||
| State | Pennsylvania | |||||||
| County | Cambria County | |||||||
| Founded | 1770 | |||||||
| Incorporated (borough) | 1800 | |||||||
| Incorporated (city) | December 18, 1889 | |||||||
| Area | ||||||||
| • City | 6.1 sq mi (15.8 km2) | |||||||
| • Land | 5.9 sq mi (15.3 km2) | |||||||
| • Water | 0.2 sq mi (0.5 km2) | |||||||
| Elevation | 1,142 ft (348 m) | |||||||
| Population (2013 est.) | ||||||||
| • City | 20,402 | |||||||
| • Density | 3,462/sq mi (1,336.7/km2) | |||||||
| • Urban | 69,014 (400th) | |||||||
| • Metro | 140,499 (288th) | |||||||
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) | |||||||
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) | |||||||
| ZIP Code | 15901-2, 15904-7, 15909, 15915 | |||||||
| Area code(s) | 814 | |||||||
| School District: | Greater Johnstown School District | |||||||
| Website | www |
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Pennsylvania Historical Marker
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| Designated: | October 1, 1947 | |||||||
Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, 43 miles (69 km) west-southwest of Altoona and 67 miles (108 km) east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census and estimated to be 20,402 in 2013. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County.
Johnstown, settled in 1770, has experienced three major floods in its history. The "Great Flood" of May 31, 1889, occurred after the South Fork Dam collapsed 14.1 miles (22.7 km) upstream from the city during heavy rains. At least 2,209 people died as a result of the flood and subsequent fire that raged through the debris. Another major flood occurred in 1936. Despite a pledge by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to make the city flood free, and subsequent work to do so, another major flood occurred in 1977. The 1977 flood - in what was to have been a "flood free" city - may have contributed to Johnstown's subsequent population decline and inability to attract new residents and businesses.
The city is home to five national historic districts: the Downtown Johnstown Historic District, Cambria City Historic District, Minersville Historic District, Moxham Historic District, and Old Conemaugh Borough Historic District. Individual listings on the National Register of Historic Places are the Grand Army of the Republic Hall, Cambria Iron Company, Cambria Public Library Building, Bridge in Johnstown City, Nathan's Department Store, and Johnstown Inclined Railway.
Johnstown was formally organized as a town in 1800 by the Swiss German immigrant Joseph Johns (born Josef Schantz). The settlement was initially known as "Schantzstadt", but was soon anglicized to Johnstown. From 1834 to 1854, the city was a port and key transfer point along the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. Johnstown was at the head of the canal's western branch, with canal boats having been transported over the mountains via the Allegheny Portage Railroad and refloated here, to continue the trip by water to Pittsburgh and the Ohio Valley. Perhaps the most famous passenger who traveled via the canal to visit Johnstown briefly was Charles Dickens in 1842. By 1854, canal transport became redundant with the completion of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which now spanned the state. With the coming of the railroads, the city's growth improved. Johnstown became a stop on the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and was connected with the Baltimore & Ohio. The railroads provided large-scale development of the region's mineral wealth.
Iron, coal, and steel quickly became central to the town of Johnstown. By 1860, the Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown was the leading steel producer in the United States, outproducing steel giants in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Through the second half of the 19th century, Johnstown made much of the nation's barbed wire. Johnstown prospered from skyrocketing demand in the western United States for barbed wire. Twenty years after its founding, the Cambria Works was a huge enterprise sprawling over 60 acres (240,000 m2) in Johnstown and employing 7,000. It owned 40,000 acres (160 km2) of valuable mineral lands in a region with a ready supply of iron, coal and limestone.
Floods were almost a yearly event in the valley during the 1880s. On the afternoon of May 30, 1889, following a quiet Memorial Day ceremony and a parade, it began raining in the valley. The next day water filled the streets, and rumors began that a dam holding an artificial lake in the mountains to the northeast might give way. It did, and an estimated 20 million tons of water began spilling into the winding gorge that led to Johnstown some 14 miles (23 km) away. The destruction in Johnstown occurred in only about 10 minutes. What had been a thriving steel town with homes, churches, saloons, a library, a railroad station, electric street lights, a roller rink, and two opera houses was buried under mud and debris. Out of a population of approximately 30,000 at the time, at least 2,209 people are known to have perished in the disaster. An infamous site of a major fire during the flood was the old stone Pennsylvania Railroad bridge located where the Stonycreek and Little Conemaugh rivers join to form the Conemaugh River. The bridge still stands today.
The Johnstown Flood established the American Red Cross as the pre-eminent emergency relief organization in the United States. Founder Clara Barton, then 67, came to Johnstown with 50 doctors and nurses and set up tent hospitals as well as temporary "hotels" for the homeless, and stayed on for five months to coordinate relief efforts.
The mills were back in operation within a month. The Cambria Works grew, and Johnstown became more prosperous than ever. The disaster had not destroyed the community but strengthened it. Later generations would draw on lessons learned in 1889.
In the early 20th century, the population reached 75,000 people. The city's first commercial radio station, WJAC, began broadcasts in 1925. The downtown boasted at least five major department stores, including Glosser Brothers, which in the 1950s gave birth to the Gee Bee chain of department stores. However, the St Patrick's Day flood of 1936 combined with the gnawing effects of the Great Depression left Johnstown struggling again, but only temporarily. Johnstown's citizens mobilized to achieve a permanent solution to the flooding problem and wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt pleading for federal aid. Starting in August 1938, continuing for the next five years, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers gouged, widened, deepened, and realigned 9.2 miles (14.8 km) of river channel in the city, and encased the river banks in concrete and reinforced steel. In a campaign organized by the Chamber of Commerce, thousands of Johnstown's citizens wrote to friends and relatives across the country hoping to bring new business to the town. Professional ice hockey would find a home in Johnstown, starting in 1941 with the Johnstown Blue Birds for one season and returning in 1950 with the Johnstown Jets. The Jets later hosted an exhibition game against Maurice Richard and the Montreal Canadiens on November 20, 1951. The memory of floods was virtually purged from the community's consciousness. Newcomers to the town heard little about the tragic past. Johnstown proclaimed itself "flood-free", a feeling reinforced when Johnstown was virtually the only riverside city in Pennsylvania not to flood during Hurricane Agnes in 1972.
The immediate post-World War II years mark Johnstown's peak as a steel maker and fabricator. At its peak, steel provided Johnstowners with more than 13,000 full-time, well-paying jobs. However, increased domestic and foreign competition, coupled with Johnstown's relative distance from its primary iron ore source in the western Great Lakes, led to a steady decline in profitability. New capital investment waned. Johnstown's mountainous terrain, and the resulting poor layout for the mills' physical plant strung along 11 miles (18 km) of river bottom lands, compounded the problem.
New regulations ordered by the EPA in the 1970s also hit Johnstown, with the aging Cambria plant (now Bethlehem Steel) especially hard. However, with encouragement from the steel company, the city fathers organized an association called Johnstown Area Regional Industries (JARI) and, within a year, raised $3 million for industrial development in the area. Bethlehem Steel, which was the major contributor to the fund, committed itself to bringing new steelmaking technologies to Johnstown because they were impressed by the city's own efforts to diversify.
Extensive damage from the 1977 flood was heavy and there was talk of the company pulling out. Again, the city won a reprieve from the company's top management, which had always regarded the Johnstown works with special affection because of its history and reputation. As the increasing amount of federal environmental regulations became more difficult to comply with and the issues with the aging manufacturing facilities grew more significant, and as steel companies began closing down plants all over the country, by 1982 it looked as if Johnstown had exhausted its appeals. By the early 1990s, Johnstown abandoned most of its steel production, although some limited fabrication work continues.
In 2003, U.S. Census data showed that Johnstown was the least likely city in the United States to attract newcomers; however, what were previously relatively weak opportunities provided by the local manufacturing and service economies have more recently begun to burgeon, attracting outsiders. Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica, a Spanish wind energy company, opened its first U.S. wind turbine blade manufacturing facility near here in 2006. Several state-of-the-art operational wind turbines are sited on Babcock Ridge, the "Eastern Continental Divide", along the eastern edge of Cambria and Somerset counties. Lockheed Martin relocated a facility from Greenville, South Carolina, to Johnstown in 2008.
Companies like Concurrent Technologies Corporation, DRS Laurel Technologies, ITSI Biosciences, Kongsberg Defense and more throughout the region are embracing cutting edge technology and scientific progress to create products that make life easier, better and greener. Recent construction in the surrounding region, the downtown, and adjacent Kernville neighborhood—including a new 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) Regional Technology Complex that will house a division of Northrop Grumman, among other tenants—signal the increasing dependence of Johnstown's economy on the U.S. government's defense budget. The high-tech defense industry is now the main non-health-care staple of the Johnstown economy, with the region pulling in well over $100M annually in federal government contracts, punctuated by one of the premier defense trade shows in the U.S., the annual Showcase for Commerce.
Johnstown remains a regional medical, educational, cultural, and communications center. As in many other locales, health care provides a significant percentage of the employment opportunities in the city. The region is located right in the middle of the "Health Belt", an area stretching from the Midwest to New England and down the East Coast that has had massive growth in the health care industry. Major health care centers include Memorial Medical Center and Windber Medical Center, the Laurel Highlands Neuro-Rehabilitation Center, and the John P. Murtha Neuroscience and Pain Institute, with its advances in treating wounded veterans, and the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center’s focus on early diagnosis and advanced treatment.
The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown and Pennsylvania Highlands Community College attract thousands of students to their contiguous campuses in Richland, 5 miles (8 km) east of Johnstown. Cambria-Rowe Business College, located in the Moxham section of Johnstown, offers concentrated career training and has continuously served Johnstown since 1891. The Pasquerilla Performing Arts Center, a concert/theatrical venue at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, attracts high-quality performers. The Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and the recently formed Johnstown Symphony Chamber Players provide classical music. The Johnstown Concert Ballet, centered in the Historic Cambria City District, provides classical ballet performances and training to the area. The Pasquerilla Convention Center was recently constructed downtown, adjacent to the historic Cambria County War Memorial Arena at 326 Napoleon Street. Point Stadium, a baseball park where Babe Ruth once played, was razed and rebuilt. A zoning ordinance created an artist zone and a traditional neighborhood zone to encourage both artistic endeavors and the old-fashioned "Mom and Pop" enterprises that had difficulty thriving under the previous code. The Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center offers many exhibitions, events, performances, and classes that celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the area.
The Johnstown Chiefs ice hockey team provided entertainment to the region for 22 seasons, the longest period a franchise of the league stayed in one city. The Chiefs were a member team of the ECHL, and played their home games in the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. The Chiefs' decision to relocate caused a flood of public interest in the sport of hockey. As many as four leagues were interested in having a team in the War Memorial. In the end the city landed a deal with another ECHL team, the Wheeling Nailers.
The CJL Engineering Office Building at 232 Horner Street was awarded a LEED Silver Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council on March 30, 2010. It is the first fully certified LEED building in Johnstown. The recently established ART WORKS in Johnstown! houses artist studios in some of the area's architecturally significant but underused industrial buildings. The ART WORKS in Johnstown project is projected to be a non-profit LEED-certified green building. The Frank & Sylvia Pasquerilla Heritage Discovery Center opened in 2001 with the permanent exhibit "America: Through Immigrant Eyes", which tells the story of immigration to the area during the Industrial Revolution. In June 2009, the Heritage Discovery Center opened the Johnstown Children's Museum and premiered "The Mystery of Steel", a film detailing the history of steel in Johnstown. The Bottleworks Ethnic Arts Center, ART WORKS, and the Heritage Discovery Center are located in the historic Cambria City section of town, which boasts a variety of eastern European ethnic churches and social halls. This neighborhood hosted the National Folk Festival for three years in the early 1990s, which expanded into the Flood City Music Festival. Johnstown also hosts the annual Thunder in the Valley motorcycle rally during the fourth week of June; the event has attracted motorcyclists from across the Northeast to the city of Johnstown since 1998. Well over 200,000 participants enjoyed the 2008 edition of Thunder in the Valley, and the event continues to grow in size.
Significant efforts have been made to deal with deteriorating housing, brownfields, drug problems, and other issues as population leaves the city limits and concentrates in suburban boroughs and townships. The Johnstown Fire Department has become a leader in developing intercommunication systems among first responders, and is now a national model for ways to avoid the communications problems which faced many first responders during the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On May 2, 2015, Johnstown was announced the winner of the 2015 Kraft Hockeyville USA contest and was awarded $150,000 toward improvements of the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. The contest was sponsored through a partnership between Kraft Foods, the National Hockey League (NHL), and National Hockey League Player's Association (NHLPA). In addition to the cash prize, the arena won the opportunity to host the September 29, 2015 NHL pre-season game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Johnstown is located in southwestern Cambria County at 40°19′31″N 78°55′15″W / 40.32528°N 78.92083°W / 40.32528; -78.92083 (40.325174, -78.920954).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.1 square miles (15.8 km2), of which 5.9 square miles (15.3 km2) is land and 0.19 square miles (0.5 km2), or 3.25%, is water. The Conemaugh River forms at Johnstown at the confluence of its tributaries, the Stonycreek River and the Little Conemaugh.
| Climate data for Johnstown | |||||||||||||
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| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 80 (26.7) |
77 (25) |
86 (30) |
95 (35) |
96 (35.6) |
100 (37.8) |
104 (40) |
102 (38.9) |
104 (40) |
94 (34.4) |
83 (28.3) |
76 (24.4) |
104 (40) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 37 (2.8) |
41 (5) |
51 (10.6) |
64 (17.8) |
74 (23.3) |
83 (28.3) |
87 (30.6) |
85 (29.4) |
77 (25) |
65 (18.3) |
53 (11.7) |
42 (5.6) |
63.3 (17.36) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 21 (-6.1) |
23 (-5) |
30 (-1.1) |
39 (3.9) |
49 (9.4) |
57 (13.9) |
61 (16.1) |
59 (15) |
53 (11.7) |
41 (5) |
34 (1.1) |
25 (-3.9) |
41 (5) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −20 (-28.9) |
−17 (-27.2) |
−2 (-18.9) |
9 (-12.8) |
22 (-5.6) |
33 (0.6) |
39 (3.9) |
35 (1.7) |
25 (-3.9) |
18 (-7.8) |
1 (-17.2) |
−15 (-26.1) |
−20 (-28.9) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 3.81 (96.8) |
3.42 (86.9) |
3.87 (98.3) |
3.81 (96.8) |
4.31 (109.5) |
4.86 (123.4) |
5.11 (129.8) |
4.10 (104.1) |
4.15 (105.4) |
3.27 (83.1) |
3.65 (92.7) |
3.33 (84.6) |
45.81 (1,163.6) |
| Source: Accuweather | |||||||||||||
| Historical population | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1840 | 949 | — | |
| 1850 | 1,269 | 33.7% | |
| 1860 | 4,185 | 229.8% | |
| 1870 | 6,028 | 44.0% | |
| 1880 | 8,380 | 39.0% | |
| 1890 | 21,805 | 160.2% | |
| 1900 | 35,936 | 64.8% | |
| 1910 | 55,482 | 54.4% | |
| 1920 | 67,327 | 21.3% | |
| 1930 | 66,993 | −0.5% | |
| 1940 | 66,668 | −0.5% | |
| 1950 | 63,232 | −5.2% | |
| 1960 | 53,949 | −14.7% | |
| 1970 | 42,476 | −21.3% | |
| 1980 | 35,496 | −16.4% | |
| 1990 | 28,134 | −20.7% | |
| 2000 | 23,906 | −15.0% | |
| 2010 | 20,978 | −12.2% | |
| Est. 2015 | 19,966 | −4.8% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census 2013 Estimate |
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| Largest ancestries (2010) | Percent |
|---|---|
| German | 24.2% |
| Irish | 15.7% |
| Italian | 12.7% |
| Slovak | 8.0% |
| English | 7.3% |
| Polish | 6.6% |
As of the census of 2010, there were 20,978 people, 9,917 households, and 5,086 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,555.6 people per square mile (1,371.1/km²). There were 11,978 housing units at an average density of 2,030.2 per square mile (782.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 80.0% White, 14.6% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.7% some other race, and 4.3% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 3.1% of the population. In the three-year period ending in 2010, it was estimated that 22.3% of the population were of German, 15.8% Irish, 12.9% Italian, 7.7% Slovak, 6.7% English, 5.6% Polish, and 6.1% American ancestry.
At the 2010 census there were 9,917 households, of which 22.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 28.5% were headed by married couples living together, 17.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.7% were non-families. 43.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.9% were someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.87.
The age distribution was 21.7% under 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 24.4% from 25 to 44, 27.9% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who were 65 or older. The median age was 41.8 years. For every 100 females there were 87.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.5 males.
For the period 2011-2013, the estimated median annual income for a household in the city was $23,785, and the median income for a family was $32,221. Male full-time workers had a median income of $31,026 versus $28,858 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,511. 34.2% of the population and 26.9% of families were below the poverty line. Of the total population, 55.0% of those under the age of 18 and 18.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.
The unemployment average is reported at 9%, though by some estimations it is upwards of 20%. Most of the jobs center around health care, defense, telemarketing and retail.
The city of Johnstown is divided into many neighborhoods, each with its own unique, ethnic feel. These include the Downtown Business District, Kernville, Hornerstown, Roxbury, Old Conemaugh Borough, Prospect, Woodvale, Minersville, Cambria City, Morrellville, Oakhurst, Coopersdale, Walnut Grove, Moxham and the 8th Ward.
Dale (enclave – Johnstown), Westmont, Southmont, Brownstown, Ferndale, Upper Yoder Township, and Lower Yoder Township
Richland Township, Geistown, Lorain and Stonycreek Township.
East Conemaugh, Franklin, Daisytown, Conemaugh Township, as well as West Taylor, Middle Taylor, and East Taylor townships.
South Fork, Salix, Beaverdale, Sidman, St. Michael, Dunlo, Wilmore, Portage, Ehrenfeld, and Summerhill.
The Bruce Springsteen song "The River" mentions the Johnstown Company: "I got a job working construction, for the Johnstown Company, but lately there ain't been much work, on account of the economy." "Highway Patrolman", another Springsteen song, has the lyrics "as the band played 'Night of the Johnstown Flood.'"
The 1977 film Slap Shot, directed by George Roy Hill and starring Paul Newman, was a parody loosely based on the real-life Johnstown Jets ice hockey team and its North American Hockey League championship in 1976. In the movie, Johnstown was rechristened "Charlestown" and the Jets as the Charlestown Chiefs. The film's premiere engendered some local controversy, as some thought Johnstown was portrayed in a less than flattering light. Slap Shot has since become the iconic movie about hockey and its foibles. Screenwriter Nancy Dowd would revive the fake town of "Charlestown" in her screenplay for the 1981 punk rock satire Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, but the film itself was shot in Canada.
All the Right Moves, a high school football drama set in the fictional town of Ampipe and featuring Tom Cruise, Lea Thompson and Craig T. Nelson, was filmed in the area. Locations seen in the movie are the old Johnstown High School in the Kernville neighborhood, torn down shortly afterwards; the Carpatho-Russian Citizen's Club in East Conemaugh; the Franklin works of Bethlehem Steel; the Point Stadium; the Johnstown "Cochran" Junior High football practice field and the Johnstown Vo-Tech football locker room.
Part of the film Rock Star takes place in Pittsburgh, and several scenes, including the opening scene, were filmed in Johnstown.
The Johnstown Flood, written and directed by Charles Guggenheim, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, Short Subject in 1989. The film was commissioned by the Johnstown Flood Museum Association, which later reorganized as the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, and is shown every hour at the Johnstown Flood Museum.
Mystery novel writer K. C. Constantine fictionalized many elements of Johnstown and its culture as "Rocksburg" in his novels, although the nearby city of Greensburg also provides some of the lore for Rocksburg.
In 2000, Kathleen Cambor published In Sunlight, In A Beautiful Garden. The novel followed its characters through the events leading up to and including the 1889 flood. Although the protagonists in the novel were fictional, several historical figures, such as Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick and Daniel Morrell were also depicted in the book.
Author James Patterson had his fictional serial kidnapper, Gary Soneji, from Along Came a Spider stop at a convenience store on his way through Johnstown. Author David Morrell had his fictional character "Eliot" recruit two brothers from an orphanage in Johnstown to train as assassins in The Brotherhood of the Rose.
In the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, a character mentions that they are flying over Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and quips that the people are actually entertained by the zombie outbreak. George A. Romero filmed the majority of the zombie movie at the Monroeville Mall, some 50-odd miles away.
Johnstown is featured in Defenders of Freedom Volume 1 (2010) and Defenders of Freedom Volume 2 (2012). Both are hardcover books, published by the Williamsport Sun-Gazette, featuring first person stories of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, military veterans who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In the foreword of each volume, Johnstown native and nationally recognized newspaper publisher Bernard A. Oravec shares stories of his father's military police service in Germany and growing up in Johnstown's west end during the 1970s.
Author and Johnstown native Robert T. Jeschonek wrote a nonfiction history of the local landmark Glosser Bros. Department Store and its multimillion-dollar parent company in his 2014 book Long Live Glosser's. Jeschonek also depicted a fictional 1975 tour of the Glosser Brothers Department Store in his 2013 novelette Christmas at Glosser's. Johnstown is the setting of Jeschonek's story Fear of Rain, which was nominated for a British Fantasy Award. His mystery novels Death by Polka and The Masked Family are also set in and around Johnstown.
The main highway connecting Johnstown to the Pennsylvania Turnpike is U.S. Route 219. There is also State Route 56, which is an expressway from 219 until Walnut Street. From there, it provides a connection to U.S. Route 22 to the north of Johnstown, which connects to Pittsburgh and Altoona.
The local airport is the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport and is served by United Airlines.
Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak's daily 'Pennsylvanian'. The city is located on the former mainline of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Norfolk Southern operates 60-80 trains daily on these rails. CSX also has a branch into the city.
CamTran operates the local bus service and the Johnstown Inclined Plane. Until 1976, local transit service was operated by a private company, Johnstown Traction Company. Streetcars (or "trolleys") operated in Johnstown until 1960, and trolley buses from 1951 until 1967.
Owen Library at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
