About Philadelphia: Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the fifth-most populous in the United States. In 1682, William Penn founded the city to serve as the capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution 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 in the Revolutionary War and served as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C., was under construction.
Duration of the Trip: It was not exactly like other trips we normally take. I don’t remember how but all of a sudden, the idea of celebrating-nation’s-birthday-at-nation’s-birthplace’ occurred to me and we planned to visit Philadelphia on just the previous night. We had booked for Statue of Liberty and tickets back to Chicago on the next day, so we had to fit Philadelphia on 4th July.
For a normal Philadelphia trip, 2 days are enough.
Transportation: We drove to Philadelphia from Parsippany, New Jersey and came back on the same day.
Details of the Trip: We were visiting
NYC the previous day, which turned out to be very hectic; we couldn’t manage to get up from bed before 10 am. After getting ready and finishing our lunch from one of the Indian Restaurant nearby, we started from Parsippany by 12 at noon and reached Philadelphia by 2:30 pm.
We couldn’t find any free parking in the nearby area of American museum, so we parked our car at the car parking of the museum.
As it was Independence Day, most of the visiting places were closed or were closing early. The places we managed to visit were,
National Liberty Museum is dedicated to preserving America’s heritage of freedom by encouraging people to find their own place in the story of liberty. Visitors to the Museum enjoy an inspiring and entertaining experience, as they interact with incredible stories of heroes and a collection of contemporary art. The core themes of National Liberty Museum for young people and adults include leadership and good character; diversity and inclusion; peaceful conflict resolution; and civic engagement. The primary art form of National Liberty Museum is glass art, as it makes the point that freedom is as fragile as glass.
I liked the Liberty Museum as it’s a very different kind of museum. Unlike the other museum, it is not a gallery of old memories, weapons, and cloths. But museum displays what exactly independence means and from what all we need to get independence.
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| Flame of Liberty - A Glass Structure at National Liberty Museum |
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| A Glass Structure at National Liberty Museum |
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| Abir Found the Hero within Him |
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| All dressed up for Independence Day |
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| Hiding Under the Flag - A Glass Structure at National Liberty Museum |
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| Liberty is Alive |
Entry fee for National Liberty Museum is $7 per head. But as it was Independence Day, there was no ticket as such. One can pay any amount they want.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding father of United States spent his last few years in Philadelphia.
Franklin Court or the house of Benjamin Franklin is complex of museums, structures, and historic sites situated right behind the National Liberty Museum, one of the must visit places in Philadelphia.
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| House of Benjiam Franklin |
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| Posing outside the house of Benjiam Franklin |
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| Abir is waiting to rent the house of Benjiam Franklin :P |
This place operates between 9 am to 5 pm every day. However, we couldn’t go inside as we reached there after 5 pm.
Independence Hall is a red brick building designed in the Georgian style. Independence Hall is definitely the most important building of Philadelphia; probably for the entire nation. This is the place where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. This building mainly has two halls, Supreme Court room, and Assembly room.
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| Independence Hall |
Assembly room is the place where the United States got its independence. As I have already mentioned we went Philadelphia to celebrate ‘nation’s-birthday-at-nation’s-birthplace’; in a literal sense, while we were standing inside the Assembly room, we were the actual place where the biggest nation of the world was born. It was definitely a goose bump moment for me.
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| Birthplace of America |
Independence Hall operates daily from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. from May 28 - September 5, 2016, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. July 1 – 4 and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from September 6, 2016, to May 2017. There is no entry fee for Independence Hall.
The
Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American independence. Formerly the bell was placed in the steeple of the Independence Hall; the bell today is located in the Liberty Bell Center in Independence National Historical Park.
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| Liberty Bell |
The crack in the bell is probably more famous than the bell itself. There are multiple stories behind the crack of the bell. No one recorded when or why the Liberty Bell first cracked, but the most likely explanation is that a narrow split developed in the early 1840's after nearly 90 years of hard use. In 1846, when the city decided to repair the bell prior to George Washington's birthday holiday, metal workers widened the thin crack to prevent its further spread and restore the tone of the bell using a technique called "stop drilling". The wide "crack" in the Liberty Bell is actually the repair job! Look carefully and you'll see over 40 drill bit marks in that wide "crack". But, the repair was not successful. The Public Ledger newspaper reported that the repair failed when another fissure developed. This second crack, running from the abbreviation for "Philadelphia" up through the word "Liberty", silenced the bell forever. No one living today has heard the bell ring freely with its clapper.
Liberty Bell Center operates daily 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. from May 28 - September 5, 2016. Open 'til 8 p.m. July 1 - 4. Open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from September to May 201 and closed on Christmas Day. The security screening area closes 5 minutes before the building closes.
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| Philadelphia City Centre |
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| Street Art near City Centre |
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| Street Art near City Centre |
. This is the steps of Philadelphia Art Museum. However, because of the Rock Concert of 4th July, we couldn’t visit this place.
. The Parkway is the spine of Philadelphia's Museum District. Most of the famous buildings of Philadelphia is situated across this parkway. What I loved the most about this place is the display of flags of the different country. There is not a single country whose flag is not available on this street. The flags are hosted and displayed in an alphabetical order.
I read somewhere that Philadelphia hosts nation’s biggest Rock concert and Fireworks. A rock concert is organized in the Franklin Parkway, in front of Art Museum and fireworks are displayed on top of the Art Museum. So we find our self a comfortable place and settled there. I am not a big fan of Rock music (except Bengali rock) and didn’t actually like the concert over there. The fireworks were scheduled to be started at 10:30 pm but finally it started at around 12 at night and continued for 30-45 minutes. I was a bit disappointed with the fireworks as well. I personally felt the fireworks in Niagara is much better than this one and is definitely not worth of comparing with the fireworks of Navy Pier Chicago or Macy’s Fireworks NYC.
We had our dinner in Subway in Franklin Parkway and headed to the parking spot where we parked our car. Finally, we reached Parsippany by 3 am in the night.
: We went for this trip in July’2015. There are changes of rates and timings getting changed with time. I tried to provide as much as details are possible for the trip. For any further clarification please feel free to contact me @
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