a city on the Atlantic coast of the USA, in Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. Population, 1.8 million (1975; including suburbs, 4.8 million). (The population was 1.8 million in 1920.)
Philadelphia is one of the USA’s major centers of industry, commerce, transport, finance, and culture. In 1974 the work force totaled 1.8 million (including suburbs). Manufacturing industries employed 505,000 persons, 195,000 of whom worked within the city limits of Philadelphia. The construction industry employed 90,000; transportation and municipal services 102,000; commerce, 394,000; miscellaneous services, 360,000; finance, 110,000; and civil service, 285,000.
William Penn founded Philadelphia in 1682 as a settlement of Quakers. In the 18th century the city was the cultural center of the English colonies in North America. The people of Philadelphia played a leading role in the American Revolution (1775–83). The First and Second Continental congresses met in Philadelphia, and the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the federal Constitution (1787) were drawn up in the city. Philadelphia was the capital of the USA until 1800 and the main financial center of the country until the 1830’s. At the turn of the 19th century it was the largest American city. Philadelphia was a stronghold of abolitionism in the 19th century, and by the middle of the century it was a major center of the workers’ movement.
After New York, Philadelphia is the United States’ second most important Atlantic port. In 1975 the freight turnover totaled 56 million tons. The city ranks first in imports, which include oil, the ores of ferrous and nonferrous metals, and tropical produce. Harbor moorings extend many kilometers along the channelized Delaware River, which has a guaranteed depth of 12.2 m. There is much heavy industry in Philadelphia, including the production of industrial and power-generating equipment, large metal structures, and pipes and cables. There also are radio-electronic, aerospace, ship-building, oil-refining, and petrochemical industries. The textile industry is highly developed especially fabric dyeing and finishing, carpet-making, and the production of knitwear. Other products include clothing, food, pharmaceuticals, paint and varnish, and military supplies. Philadelphia’s industries include printing, nonferrous and ferrous metallurgy, transport, and machine building. The city has automotive assembly plants.
The city plan, drawn up in 1682 with the help of Penn, consisted of a rectangular stretch of land between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. The rectangle included five squares, and there was a grid street layout. City Hall, at the intersection of Broad and Market streets, marked the center of the city. On the east is the old city, where there are several 18th-century buildings. The industrial districts are in the east (near the port) and in the west. A diagonal throughfare, the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, was built in 1919 and 1920. From 1923 to 1927 a portion of the old city gave way to commercial skyscrapers, and in 1951 the Independence National Historical Park was established. In the 1960’s the Society Hill residential complex (architect I. M. Pei) and Penn Center, a complex of large office buildings near Market Street, were built.
Notable buildings in Philadelphia include Independence Hall (1732–45; tower, 1750–51), Carpenters’ Hall (1768–70), the Merchants’ Exchange (1832–34, architect W. Strickland), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1871–76, architect F. Furness), the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building (1932, architects G. Howe and W. Lescaze), and medical laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania (1957–61, architect L. Kahn).
Philadelphia is an important research center. There are a number of universities, including the University of Pennsylvania (founded 1740) and the Drexel Institute of Technology. The city also has several scientific institutes and societies, for example, the Franklin Institute. There is an art museum (see).
The theaters of Philadelphia include the Philadelphia Drama Guild, the Walnut Street Theatre, the Shubert Theatre, the Locust Street Theatre, and the Forrest Theatre. The Academy of Music, the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra and an opera company, is also located in Philadelphia.
the name of several Hellenistic ancient cities in Egypt, Palestine, Lydia, and Cilicia that were founded between the third century B.C. and the first century A.D. The city in Egypt was situated in the region of Al Fayyum. A large quantity of Greek papyri of the mid-third century B.C. was discovered there in the 20th century. The papyri are known as the Zenon papyri, after the man who controlled the estates of the nobles of Apollonia.