Portage is a borough with home rule status in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States.

[4] The history of Portage as a community began with the building and opening of the Allegheny-Portage Railroad (APRR) in 1834.

The APRR would build their headquarters a few hundred feet west of the foot (bottom) of Plane No.

Also near the foot of the incline was the Washington House Hotel that served as a place to stay for travelers.

Within a few years after the opening of the Pennsylvania Railroad, a facility was constructed for locomotives to stop to take on water and pick up wood to fire the boiler.

With the abundance of lumber and coal in Portage, many companies were formed to deforest and mine in the area.

As a result of the new industries, a population boom occurred, and by the 1860s, a passenger station was built by the railroad along the mainline, which at the time traveled through the center of town on what is now the Sonman Branch Line.

The town continued to grow in size into the 1920s when it reached its peak population of 4,804 at the time of the 1920 United States Census.

The Portage Station Museum offers a documentary about the disaster titled "63 Men Down: The Story of the Sonman Mine Explosion."

The festival has many traditions including ethnic foods and a mass service on Sunday morning of that weekend.

They were one of the first companies to have purchased a fire engine, and they began to run mutual aid to other departments.

Many years later, they got more apparatus, and realized the single garage building was too small, so in 1977, they constructed the municipal building/fire station that also houses the Portage Boro Police Department.

In late 2015, PVFC will be receiving a new 3,000-gallon 4 Guys Tanker and in 2016 a new Sutphen Rescue-Engine to replace retired Rescue 83.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 0.66 square miles (1.7 km2), all land.