PROGRAM:PHILADELPHIA
PHILADELPHIA
Most Students on Tour Education Programs to Philadelphia include:
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Liberty Bell Pavilion
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Independence Hall Tour
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Congress Hall
With extended time or an additional day the program may include:
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The Constitution Center - "Freedom Rising"
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Museum of the American Revolution
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The Betsy Ross House
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Christ Church burial ground
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The “Rocky Steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
CLIMATE
Fall and spring are mild and the most pleasant seasons in Philadelphia. Summers tend to be hot and often muggy, the humidity tending to be highest during July and August. The rainfall pattern is generally spread throughout the year, with between six and nine wet days in every month. Winters are cold, but seldom does the mercury drop below freezing. Snow is unpredictable, some winters experiencing little and others characterized by continual snowstorms.
GEOGRAPHY
The city of Philadelphia is situated in Philadelphia County in southeastern Pennsylvania, at the junction of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, and covers almost 130 square miles. It lies
approximately 100 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean and about halfway between New York City and Washington, D.C. Philadelphia is located on a narrow strip of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, separated from the Piedmont Plateau by the fall line.
ESSENTIALS
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Seeing the Liberty Bell up close and personal.
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Standing in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall - (From 1775 to 1783 this was the meeting place for the Second Continental Congress. It was in the Assembly Room of this building that George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in 1775 and the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. In the same room the design of the American flag was agreed upon in 1777, the Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1781, and the U. S. Constitution was drafted in 1787.)
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Placing a penny on the gravesite of Benjamin Franklin - "a penny saved is a penny earned."
Get Prepared
WATCH
1776, a historical musical comedy about the events of 1776. Directed by Peter H. Hunt, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (1972)
READ
The Declaration of Independence and The United States Constitution.
LISTEN
"Gonna Fly Now" - Bill Conti/Carol Connors. The song, from the Rocky movie, became part of American Popular Culture after main character Rocky Balboa completed his daily training regimen while the song plays. The song finishes as Rocky completes his famous run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and raises his arms in a victory pose.
EAT
A Philly Cheesesteak sandwich
DRINK
Water
IN A WORD:
Independence!
SURPRISES
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Independence Hall seems so small compared to other buildings in downtown Philadelphia.
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The size of the statue of William Penn (Philadelphia's Founder) on the top of Philadelphia's City Hall.