Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -- Part 1

We went to Philadelphia! I really enjoyed our time there and thought Philly was such a cool city.

We woke up at 5:00 am and headed to Penn Station where we caught an Amtrak train to Philadelphia. We had to wait around for a while for the departure board to show us which track to go to, but once that popped up, we boarded and were off. It was my first time on a train, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I slept (quite comfortably) for most of it. :) It only took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there.

We arrived at the 30th Street Station and checked our bags so we didn't have to carry them around the city. The building was gorgeous and not nearly as big as Grand Central.

We found Philadelphia's subway. It was much cleaner than New York's subway and smelled better too. Instead of using cards to swipe at the subway entrance they use tokens. We took a short ride to 5th and Market street. We picked up our tickets for our tour of Independence Hall then headed to see the Liberty Bell.

Can I just say that it was SO awesome! Standing in front of a piece of history. The bell was ordered for the State House (Independence Hall) by the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly. It was first cast in 1752 in London, England by a company called Lester and Pack. One of the inscriptions running around the bell's top says,  "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." The quote is from Leviticus 25:10. It hung from the tower of Independence Hall and rang for public announcements but cracked relatively soon after being installed.

According to the National Park's Service Liberty Bell Center Website:

Local craftsmen John Pass and John Stow cast a new bell in 1753, using metal from the English bell. Their names appear on the front of the bell, along with the city and the date. By 1846 a thin crack began to affect the sound of the bell. The bell was repaired in 1846 and rang for a George Washington birthday celebration, but the bell cracked again [the large crack seen today] and has not been rung since. No one knows why the bell cracked either time.

 The old State House bell was first called the "Liberty Bell" by a group trying to outlaw slavery. These abolitionists remembered the words on the bell and, in the 1830's, adopted it as a symbol of their cause.

Beginning in the late 1800's, the Liberty Bell traveled around the country to expositions and fairs to help heal the divisions of the Civil War. It reminded Americans of their earlier days when they fought and worked together for independence. In 1915, the bell made its last trip and came home to Philadelphia, [where it now resides].

The bell weighs about 2000 pounds. It is made of 70% copper, 25% tin, and small amounts of lead, zinc, arsenic, gold, and silver. It hangs from what is believed to be its original yoke, made from American elm, also known as slippery elm.

This might have been my favorite experience of the day.

  

We still had time before our tour started so we walked over to Christ's Church, sometimes called The Nation's Church because of the many American Revolution leaders that worshiped there. It was built in the early-to-mid-1700's by colonists who were members of the Church of England.
  

We went there for the sole purpose of visiting Benjamin Franklin's grave. The building was beautiful and there were blooming trees all around its grounds.

The graves were right up against the church on one side and instead of being upright, like the stone markers common today, they were large, rectangular slabs of granite and other rock types set right in the ground. On one side of the church they butted up against the building.

After reading the names on all the graves (there weren't that many) we were unable to find Ben Franklin's grave. So we went inside the Church to ask about it. We found the pew that Ben Franklin sat in when he went to church and I snapped a picture of Brian sitting in it.

We discovered that the grave we were after was located in an annex of the graveyard a few blocks away. At this point, if we didn't hurry we would miss our tour, so we power walked back by way of the grave. We passed Betsy Ross' house, an unexpected surprise, on the way there. It was so tiny and on the other side hung an American Flag with the stars in the circular shape, identical to the one flying on the front of the house, but much larger.

We found the cemetery but they were charging a fee to get inside and we were about out of time. We walked down the length of the brick wall surrounding the cemetery, trying to find a way to peek in and came to a barred fence portion. What would you know, but his grave was immediately on the other side of the fence. It was just a rectangular slab of granite set in the ground with his and his wife's names engraved in the top portion. Nothing fancy at all, at least not what you would expect for a famous founding father. It's was kind of a surreal experience looking at the stone and knowing his body was buried underneath, that you were standing next to the remains of Benjamin Franklin. But we only had a few minutes to snap pictures before hurrying on so we didn't get to dwell on it too much.

Independence Hall is such a neat building. Although it is big, it is dwarfed by the modern Philadelphia buildings, and honestly it is smaller than I had imagined.

We had to walk through a security tent where the guards searched our purses and made us lift up our jackets and turn around to show that we weren't concealing anything. I think that it's so sad that we have to have security checks to visit historical sites (well almost anything) these days. What a crazy world we live in. But I guess it's better to err on the side of caution than not.

While we were waiting to be led inside, I snapped a close-up picture of the bell tower where the Liberty Bell once hung.

We were led into the east wing of the building and seated in a large room. There was a painting of the founding fathers in the building's assembly room hanging on one wall. Our tour guide had a very pronounced Northeastern accent and was very entertaining. She talked about what happened in the building and some background information. We learned that only six men signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the most famous being Benjamin Franklin. George Washington signed the Constitution, but not the Declaration of Independence because he was busy with his job as commander of the Continental Army at the time. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both signed the Declaration but not the Constitution because they were in Europe posing as ambassadors to France and England respectively.

As you walk into the front door of Independence Hall, you enter a large foyer that runs to the back of the building. The right side the foyer opens up to the Supreme Court Room where public trials where held.

To the left of the entrance is a doorway through which the Assembly Room is located. In this room the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed on July 4, 1776 by the Second Continental Congress. In the summer of 1787 the Constitution of the United States of America was drafted by the Constitutional Convention here as well. It was finished and adopted on September 17, 1787.

The chair sitting behind the head table is the original chair that George Washington used. According to the National Parks Service Independence Hall Website:

"Whilst the last members were signing [the Constitution], Doctor Franklin, looking towards the President's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art, a rising, from a setting, sun. I have, said he, often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising, and not a setting sun. "

It was pretty amazing to stand in the room where these inspired men brought about the birth of our country. I get chills again just thinking about it. In fact, all of the historical sites we saw in Philadelphia were wonderful. It is one thing to read about these events and places in textbooks and hear about them from teachers, but to actually see them is incredible. As I mentioned before, it is surreal, to be standing there and realize that you are looking at the actual place where history occurred. 

I'm so proud and grateful to be an American. I love my country and all those who have paved the way for this nation to be a land of freedom, liberty and opportunity. I know that America isn't perfect and we do have our problems, but I would rather live here than any other place on earth!