Washington, PA
Three miles southwest of Washington, PA, on the southern edge of the Greater Pittsburgh metro. The 2003 instrument landing system was the first FAA-approved ILS installed at the airport and remains the primary approach today. Memorial plaques to DeLloyd Thompson — an early-1910s aviator born in Washington County — once hung at the field; they vanished and were restored by the Washington County Historical Society in 2013–14. Single 5,004ft runway 9/27, untowered, FAA-designated reliever for KPIT and KAGC. Quirk: FAA code AFJ, IATA code WSG — one of the few US airports where the two differ.
The Allegheny River (from the north) and the Monongahela River (from the south) meet at the western tip of downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River, which then runs 981 miles to the Mississippi. Point State Park sits at the confluence — 36 acres of riverfront with a 150-foot fountain at the very tip, marking the site of the colonial-era Fort Pitt (1761) and the earlier French Fort Duquesne (1754) that was the casus belli for the French and Indian War. The Pittsburgh skyline rises directly behind the Point — the Steel City's downtown is wedged into the triangle of land between the rivers, a uniquely compact American downtown bordered on two sides by water. The Roberto Clemente Bridge (yellow), the Andy Warhol Bridge (yellow), and the Rachel Carson Bridge (yellow) — the Three Sisters — cross the Allegheny into the North Shore, where PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium sit on the riverbank.
Frank Lloyd Wright's 1935 house cantilevered directly over a waterfall on Bear Run, in the Laurel Highlands southeast of Pittsburgh. Built for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh department-store fame as a weekend retreat, Fallingwater is widely considered the finest American house of the 20th century — a horizontal stack of poured-concrete terraces that float over the stream rather than facing it. Smithsonian named it one of "28 places to visit before you die." The cantilevers were already sagging by the late 1990s; a 2002 structural restoration added post-tensioning cables to save the house from collapsing into its own waterfall.
The crash site of United Flight 93, the fourth hijacked aircraft on September 11, 2001 — and the only one not to reach its target, brought down in a Pennsylvania field after the 40 passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers. The plane impacted at 563 mph into reclaimed strip-mine land near Shanksville. The memorial design is restrained and powerful: a Tower of Voices with 40 wind chimes (one per passenger and crew member), a curving white marble Wall of Names along the flight path, and a black slate boulder marking the impact point. Visitor center opened on the tenth anniversary.
In Canton, Ohio — birthplace of the NFL (the league was organized at a Hupmobile dealership in Canton in 1920). The Hall of Fame opened in 1963 and has been the football pilgrimage ever since. Bronze busts of every inductee, the Lombardi Trophy, the Twilight of the NFL Theater. Annual Hall of Fame Game (preseason) and induction ceremony in early August. The HOF Village complex around the museum continues to expand. KCAK is 5 minutes away.