Northampton County:

Northampton County is part of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area. It borders Carbon County and the Poconos to the north, Lehigh County to the west, Bucks County and the Delaware Valley to the south, and the Delaware River, which divides Pennsylvania and New Jersey, to the east. It is part of the Lehigh Valley and is included in the Philadelphia media market, the fourth largest media market in the nation.

History: For more than 250 years, Northampton County has been one of the larger and most economically important counties in the Commonwealth. When Northampton became its own county in 1752, it was primarily because the county was strategically located at the confluence of two important rivers (the Delaware and the Lehigh), and, because of that central location, was one of the most important terminals on Pennsylvania’s vital canal system. That canal system brought anthracite coal and iron ore to the emerging iron industry in and around Bethlehem, and transported the various items produced by the county’s small manufacturers to customers throughout New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Now, the national museum affiliated with the Lehigh Canal attracts tourists and visitors from all around the Northeast to learn how this dynamic transportation system transformed America.