Lime Ridge, PA

Lime Ridge is a Columbia County census-designated place in South Centre Township, squeezed between the Susquehanna River and the highways that run along it. U.S. 11 forms the north edge, I-80 the east, Almedia the west, and the river the south. The name comes from limestone deposits in the area, and the rock shaped the place long before the interstate: early-19th-century limestone went into brick houses in Wilkes-Barre and into smelting work elsewhere.

Fort Jenkins was built here in 1778 as a stockaded refuge on the riverbank, giving Lime Ridge a frontier chapter alongside its quarrying history. Today Central Columbia's elementary, middle, and high schools sit within the CDP, so the local map has an unusual mix of school campus, river edge, old fort site, and major highway. Lime Ridge is not a traditional borough center; it is a river-and-road community whose name still tells you what was underfoot. On one side is the Susquehanna, on two sides are big routes, and below the ground is the limestone that supplied early building and industry.