Millersburg Ferry
Near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
The Millersburg Ferry is the last paddlewheel ferry still carrying cars across the Susquehanna, and it has been running since at least eighteen twenty-five. For nearly half a century, boatmen poled flat-bottomed scows across the current by hand. Then in eighteen seventy-three the operators brought in the first paddlewheeler, and steam gave the crossing a new rhythm.
By the nineteen twenties, gasoline engines had replaced steam, and the paddlewheels migrated from the sides of the hull to the stern for better control in the Susquehanna's strong current. Today the ferry still makes the crossing on a seasonal schedule, carrying cars and passengers just as it has across two full centuries. In a river valley where bridges now span nearly every bend, Millersburg holds out as a living piece of the era when a rope, a current, and a determined crew were the only way across.
