Wrightsville, PA

Wrightsville is a York County borough on the western bank of the Susquehanna River, facing Columbia across the water. The borough was incorporated in 1834 by joining the village of Wrightsville with West Phalia, and it took its name from pioneer John Wright. The river made the town’s early fortune and its later troubles: ferries, covered bridges, rail lines, and highway spans all used this crossing, while the Susquehanna also formed a real barrier between York and Lancaster counties. In 1863, local defenders burned the bridge to slow Confederate troops during the Gettysburg campaign, a moment that still defines Wrightsville’s place in Civil War history.

The river crossing remains the town’s signature feature. The 1930 Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, now a landmark of concrete-arch engineering, stretches across the Susquehanna with 28 arches; earlier wooden bridges occupied the same route. Samuel Lewis State Park overlooks the borough, and the Historic Wrightsville Museum fills in the stories that the bridge cannot. Eastern York School District serves local students, while borough government works through three wards and a mayor-council system. Wrightsville is small, but it has an unusually large historical footprint: a possible capital site in George Washington’s notes, a burned Civil War crossing, and a river town still looking across the water at its neighbor.