Pennsylvania’s Historic Sites are Under Threat From Rising Waters

Some of Philadelphia’s 65 National Historic Landmarks are in danger of being destroyed by floods, warns Kiley Bense in Inside Climate News. 

“Because they were built directly on waterways, some of these places are uniquely vulnerable. As climate change intensifies and makes severe weather more frequent, that danger is reaching new heights,” Bense explains.

Seri Worden, senior director of preservation programs at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, says climate adaptation is a “critical, absolute need” for many historical sites, such as Philadelphia’s Fairmount Water Works, an interpretive center housed in a 200-year-old structure.

At the Water Works, preservationists have laid out a three-phase plan to protect the site from future flooding that includes exhibits hung on winches or installed on wheels so they can be moved during an emergency and exhibits made of steel and other durable materials. “This site was once a symbol of humanity’s ability to harness nature’s power and bend its will to our own. In the unpredictable age of climate change, its stewards have had to reckon with the limits of that vision.”