Travel – Scranton, PA

Scranton is a second A class city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 at the 2020 census (estimated at 75,514 in 2025),^[2] Scranton is the sixth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania.^[5] It is part of the Wyoming Valley metropolitan area, which includes five cities and more than 40 boroughs forming a contiguous urban corridor with an estimated 574,000 residents.^[6] It is located 56 miles (90 km) north of Allentown, 104 miles (167 km) north-northwest of Philadelphia, and 99 miles (159 km) west-northwest of New York City.

Scranton is located in the Lackawanna River valley and was historically the largest of several anthracite coal mining communities in the area, including Wilkes-Barre and Nanticoke. It was incorporated as a borough in 1856 and as a city in 1866, later becoming the seat of the newly formed Lackawanna County in 1878. The city contains a federal courthouse for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The city is conventionally divided into nine districts, namely North Scranton, Southside, Westside, Eastside/Hill Section, Central City, Minooka, West Mountain, East Mountain, and Green Ridge.

Scranton was a major center for industry, mining, and rail transport in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was one of the first cities in the United States to implement electric streetcars, earning the nickname “Electric City”.^[7][8][9] It was the site of the 1877 Scranton general strike. The city’s industrial output peaked during the 1930s and 1940s, particularly during World War II, but declined in the postwar period due to reduced demand for coal and changes in the energy sector. The 1959 Knox Mine disaster effectively ended coal mining in the region. Scranton’s population fell from a peak of 143,433 in 1930 to 76,089 in 2010, with a slight increase recorded by 2020.