The Greater Reading Area (Reading, Pennsylvania, and its outlying suburbs) generally refers to the whole of Berks County (with an estimated population of 391,640 in 2004) and southern Schuylkill County.
While the land area of Reading itself is 10 square miles (26 km2), the land area of Berks County is 435 square miles (1,130 km2). Some of the more immediate suburbs of Reading are the boroughs of West Reading, Wyomissing, Shillington, Sinking Spring, Mt. Penn, St. Lawrence, Laureldale, Wernersville and Mohnton and the townships of Spring, Cumru, Muhlenberg, Bern, Exeter and Lower Alsace. Reading Regional Airport (Gen. Carl A. Spaatz Field) is located in Bern Township and is home to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum.
Sitting just to the north of Reading is the former site of the Reading Works. This plant opened in 1962 by Western Electric and had a peak employment of 4,900 in 1984. After being taken over by Lucent Technologies in 1996 and Agere Systems in 2000, the Reading Works became the Greater Reading Expo Center in 2006.
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