12 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Philadelphia

A century earlier, William Penn, a prominent Quaker, was the catalyst of the cataclysmic changes which transformed these British colonies into an independent nation. He founded Philadelphia, meaning "city of brotherly love" in Greek. The city became a battleground during the ensuing Revolutionary War, and afterwards became the unifying center of the newly independent states.

Today, modern office towers and streets exist side-by-side with narrow cobblestone streets. Independence Historic National Park is a highly concentrated strip of early buildings and sights, including the Liberty Bell, Franklin Court and Independence Hall. To the south lies Society Hill, the city's original residential area. Many of the eighteenth-century buildings have been handsomely restored. Similarly, Germantown in northwest Philadelphia, is another old residential section, first inhabited by Germans and the Dutch. To the west, along Schuylkill River, lies Fairmount Park, a vast belt of greenland containing numerous Federal-style mansions as well as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum. Just south of that lies the museum district, including the Franklin Institute of Science Museum and the Academy of Natural Sciences.

History

The first settlers on the site of Philadelphia, in 1640, were Swedes and Finns, later followed by Dutch and British settlers. In 1681 Charles II granted possession of this territory to William Penn (1644-1718), leader of a Quaker colony, who then founded Philadelphia in 1682 as a place of religious freedom. This freedom attracted German Mennonites to settle in the town. In 1683 Penn made a treaty with the Delaware Indians which preserved the town from Indian attacks. In 1701 he granted Philadelphia, which then had a population of 4500, its charter as a town. A fresh impulse was given to the development of the town by Benjamin Franklin, who came to live here in 1723, published a newspaper and was instrumental in founding the University of Pennsylvania. In the liberal climate of Philadelphia the idea of separation from the mother country was first formulated, and on September 5th 1774 the Continental Congress met in Carpenters' Hall. During its second session in Independence Hall the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4th 1776. In 1787 the Constitutional Congress met in Philadelphia. Until 1799 it was capital of Pennsylvania, and from 1790 to 1800 was also capital of the United States. In 1848, following the revolutions in Europe, large numbers of Germans settled in the town. The North's rejection of slavery also brought many blacks from the South.