History
The village of Johnstown was founded by European Americans in 1800 by the Swiss immigrant Joseph Johns at the confluence of the Stony Creek and Little Conemaugh rivers, forming the Conemaugh River. It began to prosper with the building of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal in 1836, and the construction in the 1850s of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Cambria Iron Works. By 1889, Johnstown's industries had attracted numerous Welsh and German immigrants. With a population of 30,000, it was a growing industrial community known for the quality of its steel.
The high, steep hills of the narrow Conemaugh Valley and the Allegheny Mountains range to the east kept development close to the riverfront areas. The valley had large amounts of runoff from rain and snowfall. The area surrounding Johnstown is prone to flooding due to its location on the rivers, whose upstream watersheds include an extensive drainage basin of the Allegheny plateau. Adding to these factors, developers' artificial narrowing of the riverbed to maximize early industries left the city even more flood-prone. The Conemaugh River immediately downstream of Johnstown is hemmed in by steep mountainsides for approximately 10 miles (16 km). Today, a plaque at the scenic overlook on Pennsylvania Route 56 about 4 miles (6 km) outside Johnstown cites this gorge as the deepest river gap in the entire United States east of the Rocky Mountains.
Read more about this topic: Johnstown Flood
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