# The New Student's Reference Work/Philadelphia, Pa.

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​ Philadelphia, Pa., the chief city and seaport of Pennsylvania and the third city in population in the United States, is situated on the west bank of Delaware River at the mouth of Schuylkill River, 135 miles northeast of Washington and 88 southwest of New York.
The city is coextensive with the county, its greatest length being about twenty miles and its breadth from five to ten. Among the most noted buildings are Independence Hall or old State House, occupied by the Continental congress in 1776, the United States mint and custom-house, the post-office, the Masonic Temple which cost over $1,500,000, Girard College, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania. The city hall, begun in 1871 and completed in 1895, is of Massachusetts marble. It covers more than four acres, has 520 rooms, and is the largest city building in the world. The dome and tower, 537½ feet high, is surmounted by a statue of Penn 36 feet in height. Not far from $20,000,000 have been expended on it. Fairmount Park, in which was held the Centennial Exposition of 1876, ​contains nearly 3,000 acres, and is bisected by the Schuylkill through its entire length of ten miles. In this park is the first established zoological garden in the United States. Fairmount water-works supply the city with over 100,000,000 gallons of water daily. The public schools, in which there are over 3,500 teachers and 150,000 pupils, are maintained at an annual cost of $5,250,000, and there are over 35,000 pupils in Roman Catholic schools. Special schools are conducted for children who fail to maintain their required standing in school. There also are cooking schools, evening schools, an elementary manual training school and an industrial art-school. Williamson Trade School, near the city, received an endowment of nearly $2,000,000, and Drexel Institute, a day and night school, gives technical courses in chemistry, architecture, mechanical engineering, cooking, dressmaking and other crafts and arts. The oldest art-school in this country is the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in this city. Philadelphia is the seat of Girard College (q. v.) and of other highly endowed educational institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania, La Salle (Roman Catholic) College, ten medical and law colleges, four dental, several schools of pharmacy and 50 hospitals. Philadelphia is the second manufacturing city in the Union, both in persons employed and in extent and variety of productions. An aggregate capital of $520,178,654 is employed in manufacturing, and the value of the productions is $750,000,000 annually, while 250,000 persons are employed. The building of locomotives and the manufacture of iron and steel implements, carpets, woolens, upholstery goods and cotton goods employ about 125,000 workmen and produce $350,000,000 yearly, and there are sugar refineries, oil refineries, breweries and great chemical works, besides a very considerable foreign commerce.
Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, made the capital of Pennsylvania in the following year, and was the central point of the colonies during the War of Independence. In Carpenter's Hall, which is still preserved, the first congress met in 1774, and in Independence Hall the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776. Here the Federal Union was adopted in 1778, and here the constitution was framed in 1787. Philadelphia was the capital of the Federal Union from 1790 to 1800. Population 1,549,008. See Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania, University of. Consult Philadelphia and Its Environs.