Philadelphia
The title of this article is ambiguous. For other meanings, see Philadelphia (disambiguation).
Philadelphia is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. With a population of about 1.6 million (as of 2016, U.S. Census Bureau estimate), it is the sixth largest city in the United States and the largest in the state of Pennsylvania. On the East Coast, Philadelphia is the second largest city after New York City. The city is located on the Delaware River in the center of the Delaware Valley metropolitan region.
In the history of the USA, Philadelphia is one of the most important cities. After New York and before Washington, it was the national capital from 1790 to 1800 and the largest city in the USA at that time, as well as the second largest English-speaking city in the world after London. Philadelphia was the site of the first and part of the second Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the proclamation of the American Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), and the adoption of the Constitution.
Philadelphia is colloquially called Philly or City of Brotherly Love. The name of the city is based on that of several ancient cities (ancient Greek Φιλαδέλφεια Philadélpheia, from Philádelphos, the epithet of Attalus II) and was probably also directly referred to the independently formed noun (φιλαδελφία philadelphía, German 'brotherly love') by William Penn. It is composed of the roots of φιλέω philéō, German 'lieben' or φιλία philía, German 'love' and ultimately φίλος phílos, German 'dear, dear, loving, kind' as well as ἀδελφός adelphós, German 'brother', thus meaning 'place of brotherly love' or 'brotherly love'.
Geography
Geographical location
Philadelphia is located in the southeastern part of the state of Pennsylvania, between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, about 210 km northeast of Washington D.C., 90 km northwest of Atlantic City, and 180 km southwest of New York City.
Geology
The average height of Philadelphia is 12 meters above sea level. The lowest point in the city is three meters. The highest is Chestnut Hill near German Town at 136 meters above sea level. The city lies on the fall line that separates the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Piedmont.
Climate
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| Monthly average temperatures and precipitation for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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City breakdown
Boroughs
Philadelphia is divided into seven boroughs, similar to the Boroughs in New York, and these in turn are divided into individual neighborhoods. List of boroughs in Philadelphia:
- West Philadelphia
- Center City (Philadelphia)
- South Philadelphia
- Southwest Philadelphia
- Northwest Philadelphia
- North Philadelphia
- Northeast Philadelphia
Some well-known neighborhoods of these boroughs are:
- Germantown (Northwest Philadelphia)
- Chestnut Hill (Northwest Philadelphia)
- Mount Airy (Northwest Philadelphia)
- Frankford (Northeast Philadelphia)
- Chinatown (Center City)
- Roxborough
- Manayunk
- Bridesburg
- Mayfair
- Torresdale
- Tacony
- Rhawnhurst
- Fishtown
- Port Richmond
Neighbouring and surrounding communities
- Camden (New Jersey)
- Bryn Mawr
- Villanova
- Valley Forge
- King of Prussia
- Doylestown
- New Hope
History
Philadelphia is one of the oldest cities in the USA. It was planned by the city's founder William Penn in 1681 as the capital of the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania. Penn gave the new city a biblical name: In Rev. 3:7-13 EU, Philadelphia is the only one of the seven churches that remains fully faithful to the Lamb of God (i.e., Jesus Christ) even in the time of persecution.
In 1683, 13 German Quaker and Mennonite families from Krefeld arrived in Philadelphia on the ship "Concord" and settled in the new suburb founded by Franz Daniel Pastorius called Germantown.
Philadelphia was the second capital of the United States of America (1790-1800), after New York (1788-1790), until the completion of the new capital at Washington, D.C.
Philadelphia is where the Declaration of Independence was adopted and proclaimed on July 4, 1776, as well as the Constitution on July 17, 1787. Until the early 19th century, Philadelphia was also the largest city in the United States, and at times the largest English-speaking city west of London.
From 1838 to 1844, Edgar Allan Poe and his wife Virginia Clemm Poe spent six very productive years in Philadelphia. Initially he was editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, then editor-in-chief of Graham's Magazine. During these years, Poe wrote Ligeia, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Double Murder in the Rue Morgue, and The Gold Bug, among others.
Johannes Nepomuk Neumann, a Bohemian-German priest and missionary, was consecrated Bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. In just eight years in office, he built the foundations for the system of church schools that still exists today in the United States. In 1977, he was canonized by Pope Paul VI, the first U.S. bishop to be canonized. Beginning in 1854, German painter Paul Weber was active in Philadelphia and influenced the Hudson River School.
In 1876, Philadelphia hosted the Centennial Exhibition, the first official world's fair in the United States. Of the buildings, for example, the Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park is preserved.
The famous Liberty Bell, which had previously traveled the country as a symbol of the Wars of Independence, has been back in the city since 1915 and since 2003 has hung in a purpose-built exhibition building; together with Independence Hall, where it once hung, Philadelphia is thus home to two of the most important symbolic sites in the United States.
Philadelphia is home to the oldest post office as well as the first two banks in the United States and America's first zoo.
Philadelphia is home to three properties of outstanding historical significance to American history: Independence National Historical Park, the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, and the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial. 67 sites have National Historic Landmark status. Independence Hall itself has been a United States World Heritage Site since 1979, and 580 Philadelphia County structures and sites are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as of September 22, 2020.
Historical map (around 1888)
