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The original capital of the nation, PHILADELPHIA
was laid out by William Penn Jr. in 1682, on a grid system that
was to provide the pattern for most American cities. It was envisaged
as a "greene countrie towne" and today, for all its
historical and cultural significance, it still manages to retain
a certain quaintness. Just a few blocks away from downtown, shady
cobbled alleys stand lined with red-brick colonial houses, while
the peace and quiet of huge Fairmount Park make it easy to forget
you're in a major metropolis.
Settled by Quakers , Philadelphia
prospered swiftly on the back of trade and commerce, and by the
1750s had become the second largest city in the British Empire.
Economic power fueled strong revolutionary feeling, and the city
was the capital during the War of Independence
(except for nine months under British occupation in 1778). It
also served as the US capital until 1800, while Washington, DC
was being built. The Declaration of Independence
was written, signed and first publicly read here in 1776, as was
the US Constitution ten years later. Philadelphia
was also a hotbed of new ideas in the arts and sciences, as epitomized
by the scientist, philosopher, statesman, inventor and printer
Benjamin Franklin .
Philadelphia, which translated from Greek means
"City of Brotherly Love," is in fact one of the most
ethnically mixed US cities, with substantial
communities of Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans and Asians living
side by side. Many of the city's residents are descendants of
the migrants who flocked here after the Civil War when, like Chicago,
Philadelphia was seen as a place of tolerance and liberalism.
More recently, it voted in the nation's first black mayor, and
has the country's best museum dedi-cated to African-American history
and culture.
Once known as "Filthydelphia," and the
butt of derision from W.C. Fields in the 1930s (as in his famous
epitaph: "On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia"),
the city underwent a remarkable resurgence preparing for the nation's
bicentennial celebrations in 1976. Philadelphia's strength today
is its great energy fueled by history, strong cultural institutions,
and a new influx of income due to its new downtown convention
center grounded in its many staunchly traditional neighborhoods,
especially Italian South Philadelphia . An impressive
amount of new construction and revitalization is currently being
undertaken in the downtown area, further testimony of the city's
economic boom.
