“ The extensive railway system under the control of the Pennsylvania railway together with the Baltimore & Ohio railway affords transportation facilities north to New York, south to Baltimore, Washington and the south, west to the bituminous coalfields of Pennsylvania, the grain fields of the Middle West, and to Pittsburg, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Chicago. The Philadelphia & Reading railway connects the city with the great anthracite coal region, and both the Philadelphia & Reading and the Pennsylvania control a line to Atlantic City. ”

“ The library has owned its building since 1790; the building on the present site was opened in 1880 and was enlarged in 1889.
The American Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin in 1743, is the oldest and the most famous academy of science in America. Its organization was the immediate consequence of a circular by Franklin entitled, A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America. In 1769 it united with (and officially took the name of) “The American Society held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge.” ”

“ Philadelphia is the seat of the state penitentiary for the eastern district, in which, in 1829, was inaugurated the “individual” system, i.e. the separate imprisonment and discriminating treatment of criminals with a view to effecting their reform.
Transportation and Commerce.—Nearly every street in the business centre and about one-third of the streets throughout the built-up portion of the city have a single track of electric railway (overhead trolley) , and most of the wider ones, except Broad Street, which has none, have a double track. ”

“ The Philadelphia Commercial Museums, founded in 1894, is a notable institution for promoting the foreign commerce of the United States, having a collection of raw materials and manufactured products from all countries, a laboratory and a library. ”

“ At the southern extremity are lowlands protected by dikes from the tide, the business centre between the rivers is about 40 ft. higher but level, the district west of the Schuylkill is generally rolling, and in the upper district the surface rises from the Delaware toward the north-west until in the extreme north-west is a picturesque district overlooking Wissahickon Creek from hills exceeding 400 ft. in height
Population.—When the first United States census was taken, in 1790, Philadelphia was the second largest city in the Union, and had a population of 28,522. ”

“ The dominant feature of the domestic architecture is the long rows, in street after street, of plain two-storey or three-storey dwellings of red (“Philadelphia”) pressed brick with white marble steps and trimmings, and with white or green shutters, each intended for one family.
Parks.—Fairmount Park extends along both banks of the Schuylkill for about 5 m. and from the confluence of the Schuylkill and Wissahickon Creek it continues up the latter stream through a romantic glen for 6 m. Its area is about 3418 acres. ”

“ The several administrative departments are: public safety, public works, receiver of taxes, city treasurer, city controller, law, education, charities and corrections, supplies, wharves, docks and ferries, civil service commission and sinking fund commission (composed of the mayor, the city controller and a commissioner elected by a majority vote of the city councils) . ”

“ In Broad and Spring Garden streets opposite the Baldwin Locomotive Works is Herbert Adams's statue of Matthias William Baldwin (1795-1866) , founder of the works. Close to the bank of the Delaware, some distance N.N.E. of the city-hall, is the small Penn Treaty Park with a monument to mark the site of the great elm tree under which Penn, according to tradition, negotiated his treaty with the Indians in 1683. In the south-west part of the city, along the Schuylkill, is Bartram's botanical garden (27 acres) , which the city added to its park system in 1891 ”

“ The Consolidation Act of 1854 extended the boundaries to the county lines without destroying the county government, changed the corporate name from “Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of Philadelphia” to “the City of Philadelphia,” created the offices of controller and receiver of taxes, and considerably modified the powers and duties of the corporation and its officers. The Bullitt Act, passed in 1885 to go into effect in 1887, and since 1885 amended and supplemented, is a new charter except in name ”

“ The wholesale district is centred at the east end of Market Street near the Delaware river. The best retail shops are farther west on the south side of Chestnut Street and on Market and Arch streets. Most of the leading banks and trust companies are on Chestnut Street and on Third Street between Chestnut and Walnut streets. Several of the larger office buildings and the stations of the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia 81 Reading railways are in the vicinity of the city hall ”

“ The Wagner Free Institute of Science, founded by William Wagner in 1855, has a library and a natural history museum, provides free lectures on scientific subjects, and publishes Transactions, containing scientific memoirs. The Franklin Institute for the promotion of mechanic arts (1824) has a technical library (with full patent records of several nations) ; since 1824 it has held exhibitions of manufactures; it has published since 1826 the Journal of the Franklin Institute; the institute provides lecture courses and has night schools of drawing, machine design and naval architecture. ”

“ Steamships ply regularly between Philadelphia and several European ports, ports in the West Indies, and ports of the United States.
The port extends from the Pennsylvania railway terminal at Greenwich Point up the Delaware River to the Philadelphia & Reading terminal at Port Richmond, a distance of about 8 m., and there are minor harbour facilities on the Schuylkill. The natural facilities, together with the improvements that have been made, were long offset by an inefficient port administration under an antiquated law of 1803 which permitted the wharves to pass largely under private control ”

“ Its building houses a library, a collection of rare prints and autographs, and a museum with a picture gallery and exhibits of embroidery, textiles, ceramics, wood and metal work, &c. The Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art founded in 1876 and opened in 1877, has schools at Broad and Pine streets—the museum is housed in Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park. The school is a pioneer in America; it was originally a school of applied art, but in 1884 the Philadelphia textile school was established as another department. ”

“ Other large industries are the manufacture of foundry and machine-shop products, cotton goods, malt liquors, iron and steel, chemicals, cigars and cigarettes, soap, confectionery, furniture, paints, boots and shoes, electrical apparatus, and cordage and twine, and among notable individual establishments are the Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Cramp Ship-Yards and the Disston or Keystone Saw Works. There are petroleum refineries at Point Breeze near the mouth of the Schuylkill ”

“ Under the influence of this publication a new educational association was formed which purchased the building and in January 1751 opened in it an institution that was chartered as an “academy and charitable school” in 1753, was rechartered as a college and academy in 1755, and became the university of Pennsylvania by act of the state legislature passed in 1791. The university occupied the site of the present post office from 1802 until 1872, but was then removed to grounds near the western bank of the Schuylkill. ”

“ On its first floor is Joseph A. Bailly’s statue of Washington, which was erected in front of Independence Hall in 1869. About the Public Buildings are statues of Generals McClellan and Reynolds, President McKinley, and Joseph Leidy and St Gaudens’s “Pilgrim.” On all sides are great buildings: on the north the masonic temple (1868–1873) ; on the south the stately Betz Building; on the west the enormous Broad Street station of the Pennsylvania railway. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Oddfellows’ Temple are among other notable buildings in the vicinity. ”

“ To a few young men and women it gives training in scientific investigation without charge. The Pennsylvania Historical Society, organized in 1824, has a valuable collection of historical material, including the papers of the Penn family and the Charlemagne Tower collection of American colonial laws, and many early American printed handbills and books (especially of Bradford, Franklin and Christopher Saur) , portraits and relics. ”