Broad Mountain (Lehigh Valley)

Broad Mountain or Broad Ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in Carbon County and Schuylkill County in Eastern Pennsylvania is a steep-faced, anthracite-bearing barrier ridge just south of both Beaver Meadows and Weatherly, north of Nesquehoning and west & south of the Lehigh River basin (so the west of the SW-border of the Poconos). The Mountain ridge line is mostly flat and looks very similar to the man made piles of culm in the region from the roads and towns looking up; being a natural mountain, it is quite different when under one's feet.

Broad Mountain[1]
USGS relief: The "Barrier Wall" of Broad Mountain (center Landform) and the Terrains it dominates west of the Lehigh Gorge and north of Tamaqua, Nesquehoning and Jim Thorpe, PA
Highest point
PeakBroad Mountain, Carbon County[2]
Elevation547.116 m (1,795.00 ft) GNIS
Prominence540.1056 m (1,772.000 ft) 1170284, Range,
Coordinates40°54′34″N 75°48′24″W 
Dimensions
Length14–15.0 mi (22.5–24.1 km) east-west
Geography
Broad Mountain had a large importance in local Rail Transportation. The Nesquehoning Creek rises steeply along its southern face to traverse the mountain pass occupied by today's Hometown sitting in a saddle between it and Nesquehoning Ridge. *Paralleling both to the south across Nesquehoning Creek, are Rt-54, and the RBMN railroad, successor to the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad and its lessee, the Central Railroad of New Jersey. *Above the North-face, the stream valleys hosted the Beaver Meadows Railroad, later the oldest part of the fabled Lehigh Valley Railroad (Operated today by Norfolk Southern Railroad).
CountryUnited States
StatePennsylvania
Borders onRidge-and-Valley Appalachians, Nesquehoning Creek and Upper Lehigh River at lower Lehigh Gorge
Geology
OrogenyAppalachian Mountains
Age of rockSilurian??
Type of rockTuscarora Formation?? and Shawangunk Formation; sedimentary

Geography

The long ridge has several peaks and the WSW peak in Schuylkill County is just 23 feet (7.0 m) short of the summit altitude of the Carbon County peak. The WSW section also continues an important watershed terrain separating the waters of the Schuylkill basin from those of the Lehigh River, which receives the majority of outflow. Broad Ridge and Nesquehoning Ridge are joined together at elevation at the location of Hometown, Pennsylvania through which an important railroad line and PA Route 54 climb from Nesquehoning, nestled into a notch around the ridge's southern face.

Oriented East-West and flanked in its south by Nesquehoning Creek the ridgeline extends 14 miles (23 km)[3] from the right bank of the Lehigh Gorge to the left bank of the Little Schuylkill River near the railroad junctions at Hometown, PA and Delano, PA.

Left side closeup of Broad Mountain, showing divide details between Schuylkill and Lehigh Valley basins. (Above map, without markup and annotations)
  • In the upper right corner the roadway trace running diagonally from the right side of the map through Beaver Meadow and off the top is the wagon road predecessor of PA 93, the former toll road of the Lehigh & Susquehanna Turnpike taken over by the county in the last half of the nineteenth century.

See also

Footnotes
  1. "Broad Mountain". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2016-05-04., 2ndary Schuylkill County summit by 23 ft. to id# 1212038 & tower #1212363
  2. "Broad Mountain + Tower, Carbon County". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2016-09-09. Summary data: Broad Mountain, 1212038, Summit, Carbon, PA, 405435N, 0754824W, 1795, Weatherly, -, 30-AUG-1990
  3. Approximate, parallel and similar distance as Jim Thorpe to Tamaqua cited in Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company

References
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