Gettysburg Heritage Sites Self-Guided Walking Tour - Gettysburg, PA
N 39° 48.672 W 077° 13.520
18S E 309515 N 4409171
Learn about history as you stroll though rolling hills which were once deadly battlefields but are now decorated with interpretive and endless monuments, memorials and markers. Learn about local town cultural too as you tour the town square.
Waymark Code: WM9P3W
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 09/12/2010
Views: 31
The posted coordinates are for the visitors center. I completed the tour but needed a car, a good pair of sneakers and eight hours to do it and I think I still missed some. There is an audio CD, automobile car version of this but I bought a map and just walked around. When finished with a site, I would drive to another site which was usually separated by a half to a full mile. This heritage site also includes the town and the town square but I limited myself to the National Cemetery, The Welcome Center/Visitor Center, East Cemetery Hill, Eternal Flame and surrounding memorials and a couple of long roads with battlefields and memorials.
The website says the tour is available 24 hours a day but certain parts, the battlefields specifically, are not available from 10 PM to 6 AM and I certainly would not stroll through downtown at 11 PM at night either. Parking is a breeze. There are may free parking lots but if you are lazy at me, I suggest you start the tour by parking in front of the National Cemetery and paying 25 cents/hour. As you take the tour, take special care to note the placards on many of the houses in town as they say Civil War House or something similar to let the visitor know the structure in some way has history with the War.
Site Description
Located in rural southcentral Pennsylvania, the town of Gettysburg is surrounded by Gettysburg National Military Park. In July 1863, 2,400 residents found themselves in the midst of the Battle of Gettysburg and cared for 21,000 wounded in its aftermath. In November 1863 President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address and dedicated the National Soldiers Cemetery. The walking tour, which is available as a downloadable PDF file from www.mainstreetgettysburg.org, or as a brochure, illustrates the impact that the Battle of Gettysburg had on this small rural community during thos fateful days in 1863, offering a sampling of Gettysburg-related battle sites.