Philadelphia Travel Guide
Sixth-most populous city in the US and second-most populous city in the Northeastern US played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers, who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution
Places to See in Philadelphia
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Benjamin Franklin Bridge
Suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, and Camden, New Jersey with pedestrian walkways running along both sides of the bridge
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Betsy Ross House
Landmark purported to be the site where the seamstress and flag-maker Betsy Ross (1752-1836) lived when she is said to have sewed the first American Flag
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Boathouse Row
Historic site located on the east bank of the Schuylkill River consisting of a row of 15 boathouses housing social and rowing clubs and their racing shells
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Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul
Largest Catholic church in Pennsylvania and one of the most architecturally notable structures in Philadelphia
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Christ Church Philadelphia
Church in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia played an integral role in the founding of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States
Christ Church Burial Ground
Important early-American cemetery known for the final resting place of Benjamin Franklin, his wife, and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence
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Eastern State Penitentiary
Former American prison where notorious criminals such as Al Capone and bank robber Willie Sutton were held
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Edage Allen Poe National Historic Site
Preserved home once rented by American author Edgar Allan Poe
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Elfreths Alley
Historic street, dating back to 1703, known for its Georgian and Federal-style houses and cobblestone pavement
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Fairmount Park
Largest municipal park in Philadelphia, and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city
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Fairmount Water Works
Municipal waterworks nown for its architecture and its engineering innovations, it now houses a restaurant and an interpretive center
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Independence Hall National Historical Park
Historic civic building in which both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted
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Longwood Gardens
Botanical garden consisting of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in the Brandywine Creek Valley
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Love Park
Public park nicknamed LOVE Park for its reproduction of Robert Indiana's 1970 LOVE sculpture which overlooks the plaza
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Morris Arboretum & Gardens
Official arboretum of Pennsylvania containing more than 13,000 plants of over 2,500 types, representing the temperate floras of North America, Asia, and Europe
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Penn Museum
Archaeology and anthropology museum featuring materials from the ancient Mediterranean World, Egypt, the Near East, Mesopotamia, East Asia, and Mesoamerica
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Penns Landing
Waterfront area of Center City Philadelphia along the Delaware River
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Pennypack Park
Municipal park including about 1,600 acres of woodlands, meadows and wetlands with Pennypack Creek running through the park to the Delaware River
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Philadelphia City Hall
Seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia, built of brick, white marble, and limestone, it is the world's largest free standing masonry building
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Philadelphia Museum of Art
Art museum including collections containing over 240,000 objects including major holdings of European, American and Asian origin
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Philadelphia's Magic Gardens
Folk art environment, and gallery space featuring mosaics made up of everything from kitchen tiles to bike wheels, Latin-American art to china plates
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Reading Terminal Market
Enclosed public market with vendor stalls and over one hundred merchants offering fresh produce, baked goods, crafts, books, clothing, and specialty and ethnic foods
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Rodin Museum
Museum contains one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin's works outside Paris
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Schuylkill River Trail
Multi-use trail along the banks of the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania
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Shofuso Japanese House and Garden
Traditional 17th century-style Japanese house and garden located in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park
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Spruce Street Harbor Park
Urban beach located in Penn's Landing and open during the summer, the place features a boardwalk along the Delaware River
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Washington Square
6.4 acres (2.6 ha) open-space park in Center City, Philadelphia, and one of the five original planned squares laid out on the city grid by William Penn's surveyor
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Wissahickon Valley Park
Park containing 2,042 acres (8.26 km2) of parkland in Northwest Philadelphia, including the Wissahickon Creek from its confluence with the Schuylkill River
Philadelphia, colloquially Philly, is the sixth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is also the second-most populous city in the Northeastern United States, behind New York City.
Philadelphia is one of the oldest municipalities in the United States. William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city in 1682 to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress, and the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Several other key events occurred in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War including the First Continental Congress, the preservation of the Liberty Bell, the Battle of Germantown, and the Siege of Fort Mifflin. Philadelphia remained the nation's largest city until being overtaken by New York City in 1790; the city was also one of the nation's capitals during the revolution, serving as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C. was under construction. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and a railroad hub.
Philadelphia has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Parkin the same watershed, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the United States. The city is known for its arts, culture, cuisine, and colonial history, attracting 42 million domestic tourists in 2016.
Philadelphia contains 67 National Historic Landmarks and the World Heritage Site of Independence Hall.
Philadelphia's architectural history dates back to colonial times and includes a wide range of styles. The earliest structures were constructed with logs, but brick structures were common by 1700. During the 18th century, the cityscape was dominated by Georgian architecture, including Independence Hall and Christ Church.
In 1932, Philadelphia became home to the first modern International Style skyscraper in the United States, the PSFS Building, designed by George Howe and William Lescaze. The 548 ft (167 m) City Hall remained the tallest building in the city until 1987 when One Liberty Place was completed. Numerous glass and granite skyscrapers were built in Center City beginning in the late 1980s. In 2007, the Comcast Center surpassed One Liberty Place to become the city's tallest building. The Comcast Technology Center was completed in 2018, reaching a height of 1,121 ft (342 m), as the tallest building in the United States outside of Manhattan and Chicago.
For much of Philadelphia's history, the typical home has been the row house. The row house was introduced to the United States via Philadelphia in the early 19th century and, for a time, row houses built elsewhere in the United States were known as "Philadelphia rows". A variety of row houses are found throughout the city, from Federal-style continuous blocks in Old City and Society Hill to Victorian-style homes in North Philadelphia to twin row houses in West Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in Pennsylvania with the headquarters of five Fortune 1000 companies located within city limits.
Philadelphia's economic sectors include financial services, health care, biotechnology, information technology, trade and transportation, manufacturing, oil refining, food processing, and tourism.
Philadelphia's history attracts many tourists, with the Independence National Historical Park (which includes the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and other historic sites) receiving over 5 million visitors in 2016.
Philadelphia is home to many national historical sites that relate to the founding of the United States. Independence National Historical Park is the center of these historical landmarks being one of the country's 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the Liberty Bell are the city's most famous attractions. Other national historic sites include the homes of Edgar Allan Poe and Thaddeus Kosciuszko, early government buildings like the First and Second Banks of the United States, Fort Mifflin, and the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church. Philadelphia alone has 67 National Historic Landmarks, the third most of any city in the country.
Philadelphia's major science museums include the Franklin Institute, which contains the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial; the Academy of Natural Sciences; the Mütter Museum; and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. History museums include the National Constitution Center, the Museum of the American Revolution, the Philadelphia History Museum, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania in the Masonic Temple, and the Eastern State Penitentiary. Philadelphia is home to the United States' first zoo and hospital, as well as Fairmount Park, one of America's oldest and largest urban parks, founded in 1855.
The city contains many art museums, such as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Rodin Museum, which holds the largest collection of work by Auguste Rodin outside France. The city's major art museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is one of the largest art museums in the world. The long flight of steps to the Art Museum's main entrance became famous after the film Rocky (1976).
Philadelphia has more public art than any other American city. In 1872, the Association for Public Art (formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association) was created as the first private association in the United States dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning. In 1959, lobbying by the Artists Equity Association helped create the Percent for Art ordinance, the first for a U.S. city. The program, which has funded more than 200 pieces of public art, is administered by the Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture, the city's art agency. The city also has more murals than any other American city, due to the 1984 creation of the Department of Recreation's Mural Arts Program, which seeks to beautify neighborhoods and provide an outlet for graffiti artists. The program has funded more than 2,800 murals by professional, staff and volunteer artists and educated more than 20,000 youth in underserved neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia.
The city is known for its hoagies, stromboli, roast pork sandwich, scrapple, soft pretzels, water ice, Irish potato candy, tastykakes, and the cheesesteak sandwich which was developed by Italian immigrants. The Philadelphia area has many establishments that serve cheesesteaks, including restaurants, taverns, delicatessens and pizza parlors. The originator of the thinly-sliced steak sandwich in the 1930s, initially without cheese, is Pat's King of Steaks, which faces its rival Geno's Steaks, founded in 1966, across the intersection of 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in the Italian Market of South Philadelphia.
McGillin's Olde Ale House, opened in 1860 on Drury Street in Center City, is the oldest continuously operated tavern in the city. The City Tavern is a replica of a historic 18th-century building first opened in 1773, demolished in 1854 after a fire, and rebuilt in 1975 on the same site as part of Independence National Historical Park. The tavern offers authentic 18th-century recipes, served in seven period dining rooms, three wine cellar rooms and an outdoor garden.
The Reading Terminal Market is a historic food market founded in 1893 in the Reading Terminal building, a designated National Historic Landmark. The enclosed market is one of the oldest and largest markets in the country, hosting over a hundred merchants offering Pennsylvania Dutch specialties, artisan cheese and meat, locally grown groceries, and specialty and ethnic foods.
The city is one of 13 U.S. cities to have teams in all four major league sports: the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League of Major League Baseball, the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League, the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association. The Phillies, formed in 1883 as the Quakers and renamed in 1884, are the oldest team continuously playing under the same name in the same city in the history of American professional sports.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Philadelphia", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
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