[smuncky]

Last week my friends and I took our first road trip out of the country to Philadelphia. They had a concert to go to and I tagged along to see the city and explore a bit on my own. Since I lived close to Philly when I was a kid (in Lancaster), I was eager to see it through more mature eyes. Even though we were there for two days, I saw alot of interesting things. Enjoy!

DAY 1

Crossing the border at Buffalo

There was a Tim Horton's at about 4 of the service areas on I-90. We're invading the US!

Couple of pics of Syracuse. It's not much different from Buffalo.

Great day to travel. No sun blazing in the eyes, but the traffic was horrible.

And we're on the home stretch.

Saw this at a truck stop we we're at. Although I didn't ask the cashier for any details.

Approaching the tunnel.

Inside the tunnel.

Entering Philly on the I-76.

Cira Center from afar.

Downtown core.

Cool looking diner we ate at after the long trip.

DAY 2

We went to see the Battleship New Jersey in Camden in the morning. When we got there, the place was a ghost town. The only things we saw were cop cars. Other than that, the waterfront is nicely done. It's got its nice places and is well built. When we were leaving however, we spotted a guy doing crack right in the middle of the road at 12pm. That's when we decided to get out of there as soon as possible.

Neat looking building on the waterfront.

Children's theme area.

Battleship from afar.

The Ben Franklin Bridge.

Old hydrant. Wierd colors.

These guns are huge!

Inside one of the turrets, I got the Tweeter Center in my sights.

This one made my laugh.

Me in the brig.

Close up of that building.

Now we're in downtown Philadelphia. Our next stop there was the Eastern State Penitentiary. Quite a magnificent place. I've never been to a prison before let alone an old one. I'll let the pictures desribe the place.

Backyard of a townhouse.

Again, weird colors.

Front wall and entrance.

Showers.

The only light that came into a cell was through these skylights.

Some exposed vaulting.

Al Capone's cell.

And what a normal cell looked like.

Restored skylight.

Outside on the courtyard where they played baseball and such.

Greenhouse.

When we left, I thought we'd go to steps ROcky climbed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Unfortuently, they are renovating the main facade at the moment, but I thought it was quite clever how they put up a blueprint of what it looks like in front of the scaffolding.

For some reason, some of the fountains around the city weren't working.

Rocky.

Ben Franklin Bridge.

Old peir converted into housing.

Penn's Landing is the equivalent of our Harbourfront Center pretty much.

Camden, NJ on the other side of the Delaware River.

The main streets have pedestrian bridges going over the highway (I-95). Each of them is done differently and are really nice.

Same bridge.

New housing development being finished.

This one is already done.

Seaport Museum.

The Hyatt.

The USS Olympia and Submarine USS Becuna are part of the museum.

All the boats together.

Stubs that were once supports for a pier.

Condos on the waterfront.

Again, one of the pedestrian bridges.

This is some new development around the Independence Park area.

Built over an old building.

New building for the Libery Bell.

Independence Hall.

Market St. is pretty much like our Yonge St.

New condo building in the distance.

Can't be big city without a Hard Rock Cafe.

PSFS building, aka Loews.

City Hall.

Inside city hall looking into the courtyard.

One of the many plazas which have entrances to the subway.

Behind the waterfall.

Urban canyon looking west on Market St.

Public toilet next to City Hall.

Liberty Place in the backround.

Ben Franklin.

This was a very cool plaza. The whole place is filled with game pieces from different board games including dominos, chess, bingo, and Monopoly.

The almost finished Comcast Center.

The city of brotherly love.

JFK Plaza.

Close up of the Comcast Center.

The fountains at Logan Circle.

Some more new townhouse developments.

Looks like Toronto.

Liberty Place.

And some night shots to end off the tour.

OVer the I-95

The Ben Franklin Bridge.

 

[Hipster Duck]

I spent a full day walking around Philly and seemed to have covered it all in about 8 hours. It's a bit sleepy compared to New York which is just down the road, but if it were transported anywhere else in America it would be a stand out metropolis.

Did you get a chance to explore some of the neighbourhoods immediately to the south of the city centre? It feels like a slightly less bustling version of Montreal down there:

Then, there's the Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. Oooh yeah!

 

[Long Island Mike]

Philadelphia: A good tour!

Smuncky: Good Philadelphia tour! I am there now typing this reply at the NRHS Library. How was your trip? first off-How was US Customs at the Peace bridge? You drove the NYS Thruway to Syracuse than I-81 S to I-476-the PA Turnpike NE Extension than I-76 the Schuykill Expressway into PHL. Camden can be interesting-a much-maligned city with an improving waterfront due to attractions such as the USS New Jersey and the Tweeter Center(quite the name!) and then good PHL Center City pics such as Love Park,the Ben Franklin Parkway and Art Museum-thanks to you I now know where the Rocky statue is-it was in front of the Spectrum in S PHL for many years.
The plaza next to City Hall looking N toward the Municipal Services Building is Richardson Dilworth Plaza- named for a former PHL Mayor. It seems like the weather was not the best-but the pics came out fine. I have never myself been to places like Eastern State Pen-I take some PHL attractions for granted sometimes-they are so close here. I will add that when I-95 was constructed in the 70s it cut off the Delaware River waterfront to an extent-that underground section was built to somewhat lessen this. As for that comment on comparing Market Street to Yonge Street-Yonge is so much more livelier and busier-by far! Hope you had a good trip and take more pics of your return to Toronto. LI MIKE

 

[smuncky]

I spent a full day walking around Philly and seemed to have covered it all in about 8 hours. It's a bit sleepy compared to New York which is just down the road, but if it were transported anywhere else in America it would be a stand out metropolis.

Did you get a chance to explore some of the neighbourhoods immediately to the south of the city centre? It feels like a slightly less bustling version of Montreal down there:

Then, there's the Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. Oooh yeah!

unfortuently i didnt. i did however walk for about 6 hours and covered most of downtown. we were also going to get some cheesesteaks but after walking so much and my friends coming from a concert, we wanted nothing but some sleep.

fortuently, we have very close family friends who live there and i'm sure i'll be exploring philly a lot more in the future.

Smuncky: Good Philadelphia tour! I am there now typing this reply at the NRHS Library. How was your trip? first off-How was US Customs at the Peace bridge? You drove the NYS Thruway to Syracuse than I-81 S to I-476-the PA Turnpike NE Extension than I-76 the Schuykill Expressway into PHL. Camden can be interesting-a much-maligned city with an improving waterfront due to attractions such as the USS New Jersey and the Tweeter Center(quite the name!) and then good PHL Center City pics such as Love Park,the Ben Franklin Parkway and Art Museum-thanks to you I now know where the Rocky statue is-it was in front of the Spectrum in S PHL for many years.
The plaza next to City Hall looking N toward the Municipal Services Building is Richardson Dilworth Plaza- named for a former PHL Mayor. It seems like the weather was not the best-but the pics came out fine. I have never myself been to places like Eastern State Pen-I take some PHL attractions for granted sometimes-they are so close here. I will add that when I-95 was constructed in the 70s it cut off the Delaware River waterfront to an extent-that underground section was built to somewhat lessen this. As for that comment on comparing Market Street to Yonge Street-Yonge is so much more livelier and busier-by far! Hope you had a good trip and take more pics of your return to Toronto. LI MIKE

customs was actually quite alright considering there were 5 people aging from 17-21 (i was the oldest). she just asked where we were going and why. on the way back to canada, it was the same routine.

and yes, that's exactly the route we took. i thought i'd keep it simple for the sake of my friend who was driving us. when my family and i go down to philly we usually go through the little towns (batavia, elmira and binghamton) and take the 63 south, then the I-390 south, and then the 17 east until we hit I-81.

 

[Long Island Mike]

Especially the Italian Market and South Street...

HD: I will add the Italian Market on S 9th Street as well as South Street from around 10th Street E to Front Street.
Cheesesteaks? Just go the corner of S 9th and Passyunk - Geno's and Pat's are there in direct competition with each other I can see the pic was a Pat's cheesesteak- I can taste those hot peppers now! Good stuff! LI MIKE

 

[flar]

Philly is quite a city. Lots of great architecture and urban atmosphere.

 

[Edward Skira]

But where are the people?

 

[smuncky]

But where are the people?

in the morning camden was a ghost town as i mentioned before. during lunch time when we came off the ship, not a lot changed. just a few more tourists.

the waterfront at penn's landing was pretty empty as well. however, during my walk in philly there were people at the museum. there were also quite a lot of people around 5pm on market street. JFK plaza had quite a turnout for a band playing some music there. but other than that at 10pm or so, the streets were pretty empty. there were however a lot of people on south street, where all the bars and reasturants are.

another thing i noticed was that there was an excessive amount of bums just sitting on benches. and most of them weren't even begging or anything, just sitting and staring off into space.

 

[allabootmatt]

Thanks for a nice tour. Philly is an interesting town--a huge amount of potential that is only just beginning to be realised. It actually has a lot in common politically with Toronto--it's the core city of a large state that mostly wants little to do with it, but is happy to take its tax dollars, and is constantly in some sort of funding crisis, especially for transit.

I have to agree with LI Mike--comparing Market St to Yonge is pretty generous.

 

[smuncky]

Thanks for a nice tour. Philly is an interesting town--a huge amount of potential that is only just beginning to be realised. It actually has a lot in common politically with Toronto--it's the core city of a large state that mostly wants little to do with it, but is happy to take its tax dollars, and is constantly in some sort of funding crisis, especially for transit.

I have to agree with LI Mike--comparing Market St to Yonge is pretty generous.

I meant it as it was they are both main streets of each city. they both have a lot of similarities in that they have lots of retail and commercial spaces, places to eat, they both run through the heart of the city right from the waterfront, and they both have a subway line running under it.

those are the kind of things i picked up on, even if the scales are a bit different.

 

[Hydrogen]

Thanks for the great tour Smuncky. I was in Philly just this past summer, and compared to the last time I was there, the city seems to be undergoing something of a revival. Some of the people I talked with alluded to the reinvigoration of downtown Chicago as an example for Philadelphia to follow.

One place I've never gone to is the Eastern State Penitentiary. After seeing your images, I can only kick myself for not going.

As to the low number of people, the streets were quite busy during the week I was there. Can I assume the weather played a role?

 

[smuncky]

Thanks for the great tour Smuncky. I was in Philly just this past summer, and compared to the last time I was there, the city seems to be undergoing something of a revival. Some of the people I talked with alluded to the reinvigoration of downtown Chicago as an example for Philadelphia to follow.

One place I've never gone to is the Eastern State Penitentiary. After seeing your images, I can only kick myself for not going.

As to the low number of people, the streets were quite busy during the week I was there. Can I assume the weather played a role?

The weather was actually quite alright during the afternoon with sunshine but being very humid. The humidity went down as it came closer to nighttime and was quite bareable with a light breeze on the streets.

 

[Ronald]

Fantastic city, thanks for the pics! I haven't really seen much of Philly, dare I say that it is overshadowed by The Big Apple?
Having a below-streetlevel plaza with direct acces to the subway.. that's a concept! Also, it seems like there's a good amount of impressive architecture there in Philly.. both historical and modern architecture.

 

[ganjavih]

Whether old or new, Americans certainly do architecture better than we do.

 

[Hipster Duck]

HD: I will add the Italian Market on S 9th Street as well as South Street from around 10th Street E to Front Street.
Cheesesteaks? Just go the corner of S 9th and Passyunk - Geno's and Pat's are there in direct competition with each other I can see the pic was a Pat's cheesesteak- I can taste those hot peppers now! Good stuff! LI MIKE

It was a Pat's cheesesteak! Nice detective work.

---

Another thing I remember about Philly was the aging transit infrastructure. Nothing on the rails looks like it was built after 1982.