Philadelphia. See Ala-shehr.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia, the chief city of Pennsylvania and the third city of the United States, is situated on the Delaware River, about 100 miles by ship-channel (via Delaware Bay and River) from the Atlantic Ocean, 90 by rail SW. of New York City and 136 NE. of Washington. It lies along the Delaware from the mouth of the Schuylkill River at League Island, northward, for about 15 miles, and has an average breadth of some 8 miles. Philadelphia is notably a 'city of homes' of the well-to-do middle class. The dominant architecture of the older sections is of the severely plain, substantial style (mainly in red brick) which characterised its Quaker founders, and is laid out with the regularity of a chessboard. A marked departure has, however, lately taken place in the style of both the public and the private buildings of Philadelphia, as shown in the city hall and public buildings (1871 et seq.), built, at a cost of $20,000,000, of white marble upon a granite base, in French Renaissance style, and covering an area of 486 by 470 feet. The height of the tower and dome is 537 ft. 4 1/2 in.; or 573 ft. 4 1/2 in. with the colossal figure of Penn (36 ft.), to surmount the whole, the structure being thus the second highest in the world. Other buildings are the Masonic Temple, of granite (cost $1,500,000); a United States government building of granite - containing the Post-office, court-rooms, etc. - (cost $8,000,000); a customhouse of marble, modelled after the Parthenon at Athens; a naval asylum; the United States Mint; the Academy of Fine Arts; the Academy of Natural Science (Gothic), with a scientific library and museum; the Academy of Music; and the buildings of the University of Pennsylvania.

Nearly every street of importance is traversed by electric tramways, on the overhead trolley system. There are numerous well-shaded commons in the older portion of the city. In the Fairmount Park, some 3000 acres in extent, and bisected by the Schuylkill River and its affluent the Wissahickon, was held in 1876 the Centennial Exhibition; and in its environs are the Zoological Garden, the Fairmount Water-works (supplying 100,000,000 gallons daily), the beautiful Horticultural Hall and Memorial Hall - remains of the Centennial Exhibition - the Laurel Hill Cemetery, etc. Among the statues are bronze equestrian figures of Generals Meade, McClellan, and Reynolds. The churches include the old Swedes' Church (1700), Christ Church (Episcopal, 1727-54), where Washington's pew is preserved, and a R. C. cathedral. Philadelphia is noted for its benevolent institutions: prominent are the Pennsylvania Hospital (1751); Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist hospitals, and the St Joseph's and St Agnes' hospitals; the hospitals in connection with the university and the several medical schools, etc. Besides the Girard College, founded in 1831 by the miser-philanthropist Stephen Girard for poor male white orphans, the city contains the Drexel Industrial Institute (endowed with $2,000,000) and the Cahill R. C. High School; whilst in Philadelphia or its immediate environs are the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades (endowed with some $2,200,000), state institutions for the blind and deaf and dumb, the Franklin Institute (1824, for the mechanic arts), Spring Garden Institute (for drawing, painting, and mechanical handiwork), the Episcopal Academy (1785), several R. C. colleges and convents, and Episcopal, Lutheran, and R. C. theological seminaries. Crowning all these is the University of Pennsylvania, founded as an academy by the sons of William Penn, which became a college in 1755, and a university in 1779; now it has over 2600 students and 270 professors and instructors, and embraces faculties of arts, science, architecture, natural history, finance and economy, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, law, and physical education. The Jefferson Medical College (1825), with nearly 600 students, is a famous medical school; others are the Hahnemann Medical College (1869), the Medico-Chirurgical College (1880), the Woman's Medical College (1850), and the Philadelphia Polyclinic and College. The capital employed in manufacturing is estimated at $477,000,000, the number of hands employed at 260,000, and the value of the annual products at $733,000,000. Among prominent industries are the manufacture of locomotives, carpets, woollens, and worsteds, upholstery, cottons, and iron and steel products (saws, principally made by one firm, employ 5000 workmen, and have an annual value of $2,500,000). There are sugar-refineries, oil-refineries, chemical works, and many breweries. The imports are of the annual value of about $50,000,000, and the exports about $80,000,000.

Founded in 1682, Philadelphia the year after was made the capital of Pennsylvania. It was the central point in the war of independence, and the city still preserves the Carpenters' Hall (1770), where the first congress met (1774), and the old State House (1735) or Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776. At Philadelphia the federal union was signed in 1778; and here, too, the constitution was framed in 1787. From 1790 to 1800 Philadelphia was the federal capital. Franklin, Paine, and Cobbett lived here; C. G. Leland was a native. Pop. (1700) 4500; (1800) 70,287; (1860) 568,034; (1880) 847,170; (1900) 1,293,697. See Scharf and Thompson's History of Philadelphia (3 vols. 1884); Philadelphia and its Environs (Lippincott, 1890); and works by W. P. Hazard (1879), T. Westcott (1877), F. Cook (1882), S. C. Woolsey (1888), and Agnes Repplier (1899).