Audioguides Scranton

Scranton was called the Electric City because in 1886 it became one of the first cities in America to operate an electric streetcar system. That innovation was fitting: the city powered itself and a good part of the industrial Northeast on anthracite coal, the hard coal that came out of the mines beneath and around it in the Wyoming Valley. At its peak in the early 20th century, Scranton was a industrial powerhouse producing locomotives, textiles, and steel as well as mining coal. The Steamtown National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service in the old Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad yard, preserves that industrial heritage with a collection of steam locomotives and railcars and working steam excursion trains that run on the original tracks.

Outside the US, Scranton is probably best known as the setting of the American version of The Office, the television series that ran from 2005 to 2013 and depicted a fictional paper company headquartered here.

The show brought unexpected tourism and affection to a city that had been struggling with deindustrialization for decades, and Scrantonians embraced it with characteristic directness: local businesses lean into the association, the Steamtown Mall appears in the show, and visitors still seek out filming locations. The city's downtown Electric City Trolley Museum and the Anthracite Heritage Museum tell the more substantial story of what the coal and railroad industry meant to the families who built and worked this valley.