Allegheny Front

Allegheny Front
Dans Mountain, part of the Allegheny Front in Maryland
Highest point
Peak	Mount Porte Crayon (Randolph/Pendleton Co. border, West Virginia)
Elevation	4,774 ft (1,455 m)
Coordinates	38°55′44″N 79°27′22″W / 38.92889°N 79.45611°W / 38.92889; -79.45611
Geography
The Allegheny Front is west of the Cumberland Valley and is part of the Appalachian escarpment extending between the Helderberg Escarpment in New York to Walden Ridge in Tennessee.
Country	United States
States	Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia
Range coordinates	39°04′23″N 79°17′53″W / 39.07306°N 79.29806°W / 39.07306; -79.29806Coordinates: 39°04′23″N 79°17′53″W / 39.07306°N 79.29806°W / 39.07306; -79.29806
Parent range	Allegheny Mountains of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
Geology
Orogeny	Alleghenian orogeny

The Allegheny Front is the major southeast- or east-facing escarpment in the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and eastern West Virginia, USA. The Allegheny Front forms the boundary between the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians to its east and the Appalachian Plateau (locally called the Allegheny Plateau) to its west. The Front is closely associated with the Appalachian Mountains' Eastern Continental Divide, which in this area divides the waters of the Ohio/Mississippi river system, flowing to the Gulf of Mexico, from rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay and from there into the Atlantic Ocean.

However, the Front and the Divide do not always coincide; for example, the North Branch of the Potomac River begins well west of the Allegheny Front, at the Fairfax Stone near the southwestern tip of Maryland, and only about 10 miles (16 km) and across the actual divide from the headwaters of the Youghiogheny River draining westwards into the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.

The Allegheny Front is one of the windiest spots east of the Mississippi, leading to the recent establishment of wind farming there.

The Allegheny Front forms part of the Appalachian Structural Front, separating the Appalachian Plateau from the Appalachians' Ridge and Valley Province. The various other escarpments along this structural feature include the Catskill Escarpment to the northeast and the Cumberland Escarpment to the southwest. The Allegheny Front itself extends for about 180 miles (290 km) southwesterly from south-central Pennsylvania through western Maryland, then divides the eastern panhandle of West Virginia from the rest of that state.