| 17.8.2008: Philadelphia | |
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On Sunday, we drove through Delaware and into Pennsylvania. We parked up at a Wal-Mart in Philadelphia and caught a bus to the visitor centre.
Without any planning, we found out that Independence Hall was free and no tickets are required between 5-7pm on Sundays. So we'd managed to time
it right! There was still a queue but we only had to wait half an hour and then went on a 15 minute tour where the Declaration of Independence was debated by the first Congress meeting (13 states) on July 2nd 1776 and then signed on July 4th. Apparently, only one third of the Americans wanted independence due to the taxes being imposed by Great Britain after the French/Indian war and the King needed to raise money to cover the cost. Taxes were put on tea and stamps amongst other things. All colonies had to pay, including the US. Jefferson was chosen to write the Declaration of Independence because he was from Virginia and they wanted to bring the "Southern" states closer to stop the north/south divide from widening. The Constitution wasn't written until 1787 and took a great deal of compromise mainly brought about by Washington who was voted in as the first President. Then we went to see the Liberty Bell which was used to ring in Independence. It got cracked at some point but no one knows how or "whodunit". They tried to repair it and made it worse so they tried again. In 1846 it was rung for George Washington's birthday, cracked wide open and silenced itself. It still has the huge crack in it. The street of Philadelphia are quite quaint with old buildings and narrow, cobblestone roads which are interesting to wander along. In the jewellery quarter, all the shops were closed and there were no signs of any jewellery because all the displays had been removed and placed in safes. Even the contents of the shops were put in safes. The empty displays were a reminder that the city has a high crime rate. It was quite weird walking past all the empty displays though. We drove out of the city just before it got dark and headed towards New Jersey. |
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