Pennsylvania is haunted by its many claims to historical distinction. Its largest metropolis was the "workshop of the world" but remains America's poorest big city. Its south-central farms and northeastern mountains boast the richest soil and coal veins, respectively, but sterile town-like developments and mammoth warehouses now dominate the land. And its defining steel company, which built America's skyscrapers and ships, could be ultimately acquired by a Japanese corporation.
