History of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
However, John Harris, Jr. refused to sell the land for the county seat under those terms, and it was agreed that the new name would be Harrisburg in honor of his father.
During the first part of the 19th century, Harrisburg was an important stopping place along the Underground Railroad, as escaped slaves would be transported across the Susquehanna River and were often fed and given supplies before they headed north towards Canada.
[citation needed] During the American Civil War, Harrisburg was a significant training center for the Union Army, with tens of thousands of troops passing through Camp Curtin.
It was also a major rail center and a vital link between the Atlantic coast and the Midwest, with several railroads running through the city and over the Susquehanna River.
In response, Union Major General Darius N. Couch, commanding the Department of the Susquehanna, dispatched troops to the present-day borough of Camp Hill, in the Cumberland Valley, approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Harrisburg.
Laborers hired by Couch quickly erected earthworks and fortifications along the western portion of Bridgeport, adjacent to Camp Hill.
On June 29, two Confederate cavalry companies attacked Union militia positions around Oyster Point but were driven back with two wounded.
Brigadier General William F. Smith, commanding the 1st Division of the Department of the Susquehanna, sent two militia infantry regiments and a cavalry company to locate the Confederates.
In the late 19th century, Harrisburg was an undeveloped industrial urban center that suffered from lack of clean water, poor drainage, frequent flooding, and absence of recreational green space.
When the Capitol burned down suddenly on February 2, 1897, congressional groups associated with western (Pittsburgh) and eastern (Philadelphia) factions seriously discussed the plausibility of transferring the capital city to a more suitable location.
In December 1900, Mira Lloyd Dock, who had recently returned from an international trip to Europe, lectured about Harrisburg's potential to the city's Board of Trade.
[6] Arguing that Pennsylvania’s capital city should be clear and healthful, the Board created the Municipal League for Civic Improvement which implemented an era of rapid transformation.
Governor Richard Thornburgh recommended an evacuation of pregnant women and preschool children who lived within 5 mi (8 km) radius of the plant.
[9] Infrastructure was left unrepaired, and the heart of the city's financial woes was a trash-to-electricity plant, the Harrisburg incinerator, which was supposed to generate income but instead, because of increased borrowing, incurred a debt of $320 million.
[16] Unkovic blamed disdain for legal restraints on contracts and debt for creating Harrisburg's intractable financial problem and said the corrupt influence of creditors and political cronies prevented fixing it.
[20][21][22] After two years of negotiations, in August 2013 Receiver Lynch revealed his comprehensive voluntary plan for resolving Harrisburg's fiscal problems.
[24] To pay the remainder, Harrisburg sold the troubled incinerator, leased its parking garages for forty years, and was to briefly go further into debt by issuing new bonds.
[23][24] Receiver Lynch had also called for setting up nonprofit investment corporations to oversee infrastructure improvement (repairing the city's crumbling roads and water and sewer lines), pensions, and economic development.
