RIVERS
of Perry County
The Susquehanna, Pennsylvania’s widest river, rolls south along Perry County’s east side – wide and shallow, perfect for family wading or drifting a kayak on summer afternoons. At Duncannon, it meets the Juniata, a gentler stream that drains from Bedford and Blair all the way east, carrying memories of cargo boats instead of canoes. Back in 1829, engineers picked the Juniata precisely because its even drop let barges glide west without locks every mile. The canal they dug linked Duncan’s Island to Hollidaysburg, where trains hauled goods over the ridge – America’s first superhighway of water and iron.
Today, the towpaths and barges have been replaced by quiet trails and bass boats. The Rockville Bridge at Marysville – built in 1902 with 48 majestic stone arches – remains the world’s longest stone-arch railroad bridge.
The Susquehanna, one of the world’s oldest rivers, is renowned for excellent smallmouth bass and channel catfish populations. State records have come from these waters. Anglers wade knee-deep along gravel bars to hook them, campers haul coolers of fresh filets back to picnic tables, and the water keeps rolling – quiet, constant, open – exactly as it was when the first canoes cut its current.
