City Walk

Ouch. I can't feel my feet. Well, it varies between complete numbness and extreme pain! But it was totally worth it. We arrived at The Philadelphia Center (TPC) today to begin our city walk. After dividing into small groups we began our trek across town, seeing Society Hill, Queen's Village, Old Town, South Street, China Town, the Art District, Center City, and Rittenhouse Square. I have included a map so you can see all the blocks that we covered (pretty awesome!).



William Penn, who designed the city of Philadelphia, made Philly the easiest city to navigate. If you stand in the center of the city hall you can look out in all four directions and see main streets. Market Street and Broad Street are the two main streets that intersect at City Hall, and by standing in the center of city hall you are basically standing at the intersection of the city. If you are standing on either of these streets you can just look for the city hall building and be instantly aware of your position in the city. There were four additional squares originally built into the city plan (Rittenhouse, Washington, Franklin, and Logan) but now one of them (Logan) has been turned into a circle. The entire city is one large grid with only one diagonal street leading to the art museum. All the streets leading one way are numbers, the other way are names. So navigating is a snap!

At the top of the City Hall stands William Penn. In the old days the city had a "gentlemens agreement" not to build any building higher than the top of William Penn. As the city became more modern they finally did away with this rule, but ever since that time the Phillies have not won a World Series. So everyone in the city thought it was a curse. Well a few years ago a new building was built in Philly, higher than any other building. At the highest point of that building the builders placed a small William Penn figurine and that year, for the first time since the original agreement was broken, the Phillies won the World Series!

I love the layout of Philadelphia because it is a combination of old and new, bringing modern architecture together with brick buildings, tree lined streets, and small alleyways. Because the city was founded so early many of the streets and alleyways are tiny, some alley streets measuring only about 5 feet across. Each neighborhood has its own distinct personality but I am confident that I would be happy living in any of them.

At lunch time we stopped at Reading Terminal Market which is a huge building filled to the brim with every type of food imaginable. I bought my first Philadelphia cheese steak which was delicious. After lunch we continued our trek out towards the art museum, around the ritzy section of Rittenhouse Square, and back to the hotel for a quick rest before our housing meeting.

And that is where I am writing this. So I am going to go take a nap, give my feet a rest, and then find a place to live in my new city!