Philadelphia - Anita

• ·         Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the fifth-most-populous city in the United States, and the core of the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Located in the Northeastern United States at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, Philadelphia is the economic and cultural center of the Delaware Valley. The population of the city — Pennsylvania's only consolidated city-county — was measured at 1,526,006 in 2010[3] and estimated at 1,553,165 in 2013, according to the United States Census Bureau. The five Pennsylvania counties nearest Philadelphia have a total population of 4,008,994, while its Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes parts of four states, is home to more than 6 million people. Popular nicknames for Philadelphia are Philly and The City of Brotherly Love, the latter of which comes from the literal meaning of the city's name in Greek, "brotherly love", compounded from philos  "loving", and adelphos "brother".
• ·         In 1682, William Penn founded the city to serve as capital of Pennsylvania Colony. By the 1750s, Philadelphia had surpassed Boston to become the largest city and busiest port in British America, and second in the British Empire, behind London. During the American Revolution, Philadelphia played an instrumental role as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787. Philadelphia was one of the nation's capitals during the Revolutionary War, and the city served as the temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction. During the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and railroad hub that grew from an influx of European immigrants. It became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration and surpassed two million occupants by 1950.
• ·         Philadelphia is known for its arts and culture. The cheese steak and soft pretzel are emblematic of Philadelphia cuisine, which is shaped by the city's ethnic mix. The city has more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city,[7] and Philadelphia's Fair mount Park is the largest landscaped urban park in the world.[8] Gentrification of Philadelphia's neighborhoods continues into the 21st century and the city has reversed its decades-long trend of population loss.
• ·         By the 20th century, Philadelphia had become known as "corrupt and contented", with a complacent population and an entrenched Republican political machine. The first major reform came in 1917 when outrage over the election-year murder of a police officer led to the shrinking of the Philadelphia City Council from two houses to just one. In July 1919, Philadelphia was one of more than 36 industrial cities nationally to suffer a race riot of ethnic whites against blacks during Red Summer, in post-World War I unrest, as recent immigrants competed with blacks for jobs. In the 1920s, the public flouting of Prohibition laws, mob violence, and police involvement in illegal activities led to the appointment of Brigadier General Smedley Butler of the U.S. Marine Corps as director of public safety, but political pressure prevented any long-term success in fighting crime and corruption.
• ·         Philadelphia is at 39° 57′ north latitude and 75° 10′ west longitude, and the 40th parallel north passes through the northern parts of the city. The city encompasses 142.6 square miles (369.3 km2), of which 135.1 square miles (349.9 km2) is land and 7.6 square miles (19.7 km2), or 5.29%, is water. Bodies of water include the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, and Cobbs, Wissahickon, and Penny pack creeks. The lowest point is 10 feet (3 m) above sea level, while the highest point is in Chestnut Hill, about 445 feet (136 m) above sea level (near the intersection of German  town Avenue and Bethlehem Pike). Philadelphia sits on the Fall Line that separates the Atlantic Coastal Plain from the Piedmont. The rapids on the Schuylkill River at East Falls were inundated by the completion of the Fair mount Dam. The city is the seat of its own county. The adjacent counties are Montgomery to the north; Bucks to the northeast; Burlington County, New Jersey, to the east; Camden County, New Jersey, to the southeast; Gloucester County, New Jersey, to the south; and Delaware County to the west.