Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Luzerne County
42-85152
Wilkes -Barre ( wɪlksbɛrə, / bɛri / or / bɛr / ) is a city of about 41,500 residents in Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Luzerne County.
The city flourished in the 19th and 20th century, when the coal industry still earned a lot of money. They got the name " Diamond City" because of the coal and also the shape of the central square, which was laid out in a diamond shape. But since the 1960s it is the city getting worse.
The city was founded in 1769 by John Durkee and a group of settlers from Connecticut. You have named the city in the Wyoming Valley by two members of the British Parliament, John Wilkes and Isaac Barre. 1806, the city was incorporated.
The city is home to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins ice hockey team, which at the highest minor league in North America, the AHL, playing.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 18.6 km ². Of this, 17.7 km ² of land and 0.9 km ² ( = 4.6 %) to water. The geographic coordinates of Wilkes -Barre are 41 ° 15 ' N, 75 ° 53' W41.244444444444 - 75.878055555556.
The city is located in the Wyoming Valley, a valley that is bounded by the Pocono Mountains to the east, the Endless Mountains to the west and by the Lehigh Valley in the south. The Susquehanna River flows through the valley and also forms the northeastern city limits.
Traffic
Interstate 81 leads in a north-south direction at Wilkes -Barre over and the city is also located on the northeastern end of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, just north of Interstate 80
The public transport (PT ) is guaranteed by the Luzerne County Transportation Authority. This serves not only the main thoroughfares within the city but also in the northern half of the county and maintains the connection to the public transport system of Lackawanna County a bus up to Scranton with a change in Pittston.
Several international airlines fly to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, located in nearby Avoca. Small private jets can fly in Forty Fort and Wilkes -Barre Wyoming Valley Airport.
The city belonged to the railway network of different railway companies: Lehigh Valley Railroad, Central Railroad of New Jersey, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad ( later Erie Lackawanna Railroad ), Delaware and Hudson Railway, Pennsylvania Railroad, Wilkes -Barre and Eastern Railroad and Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad ( Laurel Line). The Wilkes -Barre Traction Company ran a set in the 1940s streetcar line from Georgetown to Nanticoke, where they crossed the river and on to Plymouth. At present, the Canadian Pacific Railway operate (as successor to the Delaware and Hudson Railway) and the Luzerne & Susquehanna Railroad (by order of the county ) freight.
Demography
At the time of the census of 2000, there were 43 123 people of the city. The population density was 2430.6 people per km ². There were 20,294 housing units at an average 1143.9 per km ². The population of Wilkes -Barre was 92.3 % White, 5.09 % African American, 0.11 % Native American, 0.79 % Asian, 0.03 % Pacific Islander, 0.53 % gave to, other races, and 1.15 % from two or more races. 1.58 % of the population to be Hispanic or Latino of any race.
The residents of Wilkes -Barre distributed to 17,961 households. The average household size was 2.2 and the average family size is 2.96.
The city population was spread out with 19.9 % under the, 12.6% 18-24 year olds, 26.1 % 25 -44- year-old, 20.8% 45-64 year olds and 20.6 % under the age of 65 years or more. The average age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 93.2 males. In the over -18s accounted for 100 women, 90.7 men.
The median household income was 26,711 dollars and the median family income reached the height of 36,630 U.S. dollars. The average income of men was 28,737 U.S. dollars, compared to 22 471 U.S. dollars for women. The per capita income in Wilkes-Barre was 15,050 U.S. dollars. 17.8 % of the population and 12.1% of families had affected an income below the poverty line, including 24.1 % of minors and 13.5 % of those age 65 or over.
Demographics
Sons and daughters of the town
- Benjamin Burnley, lead singer of the band Breaking Benjamin
- George Catlin, Native American painters
- Henry William Frauenthal, surgeon; Survivor of the sinking of the Titanic
- James Karen, actor
- Franz Kline, Action Painter (New York School )
- Harley Jane Kozak, actress
- Edward B. Lewis, a geneticist and Nobel Prize for Medicine
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Film Director
- Mary McDonnell, actress
- Peter Conrad Nagel (1825-1911), cofounder of the Catholic founded in 1847. Fraternity Sauerlandia, pastor in Wilkes -Barre
- William D. Phillips, physicist and Nobel laureate
- Joseph Martin Reichard (1803-1872), German revolutionary, lived as a farmer in Wilkes -Barre
- Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944), American singer, who was known for her vocal performances oblique