He built this town. Penn founded our fair city in 1682, and dubbed it Philadelphia, which means City of Brotherly Love in Greek. Nearby, at 239 Arch St., Betsy Ross was sewing away, or so legend has it, stitching up the red, white and blue that would become our star-spangled banner. The streets of Philadelphia, in addition to being part of a Bruce Springsteen song, are laid out in a grid. William Penn's city planner Thomas Holme planned it that way.
Numbered streets stretch north to south.
Named streets lie east to west. There is no 14th Street. Broad Street sits between 13th and 15th, and it's the backbone of the city, spanning 11.58 miles from the banks of the Delaware River to the city's northern border. If you are standing at Broad and Market Streets, you are in Center City , not downtown. As in Eighth and Market, where you will find the Gallery at Market East , the nation's first enclosed urban shopping mall.