Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has been a key U.S. port city for more than 300 years and a major center for international commerce. Private business concerns built and maintained piers and waterfront warehouses without any governing authority in Philadelphia for many years. Eventually, city government took an active hand in the organization of the waterfront, and the Philadelphia waterfront was managed by the Department of Wharves, Docks, and Ferries, a division of the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Commerce. In 1965 the Philadelphia Port Corporation became the managers of the port, making major improvements in the 1960s and 1970s, including the construction of the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and the Tioga Marine Terminal.

Today, the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, an independent state agency, operates the port facilities. Recognizing the vital economic importance of the port, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania purchased all publicly owned port facilities from the City of Philadelphia. Port cargoes and related activities are responsible for thousands of direct and indirect jobs and other economic benefits in the Philadelphia area.

Philadelphia, nicknamed the City of Brotherly Love, is located in and entirely comprises Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The city is the seat of its own county. Philadelphia is bordered by Montgomery County to the north; Bucks County to the northeast; Burlington County, New Jersey to the east; Camden County, New Jersey to the southeast; Gloucester County, New Jersey to the south; and Delaware County to the west. The Delaware River is the natural border between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 2007, Philadelphia was home to 1,454,382 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 1681, William Penn was granted a charter by Charles II of England for what would become the Pennsylvania colony. Penn planned a city on the Delaware River to serve as a port and place for government. Penn named the city "Philadelphia," Greek for brotherly love. Penn laid out roads on a grid plan to keep houses and businesses spread far apart, allowing them to be surrounded by gardens, much like an English rural village. The city's residents however, did not follow Penn's plans and crowded along the Delaware River. Before Penn left Philadelphia for the last time, he issued the Charter of 1701 establishing Philadelphia as a city. Philadelphia soon established itself as an important harbor-trading center.

Philadelphia played an important role both before, during and after the Revolutionary War, hosting the First Continental Congress before the war, the Second Continental Congress, which signed the United States Declaration of Independence, during the war, and the Constitutional Convention after the war. Several battles were fought in and near Philadelphia. After the war, the construction of roads, canals and railroads helped turn Philadelphia into a major industrial city and a major center of maritime commerce.

The Port of Philadelphia was named the nation’s 14th Strategic Military Port by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2002, making it one of only 14 ports in the United States permitted to handle the nation’s military cargoes destined for various points around the globe. A port can only receive this designation after an intense evaluation by the Department of the Army's Surface Deployment and Distribution Command and the Department of Transportation's U.S. Maritime Administration as strategic military ports are used for quick movement of military equipment and personnel overseas in times of crisis.

Numerous transportation options exist for visiting or getting around in Philadelphia. The city is served by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), which operates buses, trains, subways and trolleys within the city. Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is a major railroad station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. Two airports serve Philadelphia: the Philadelphia International Airport and the Northeast Philadelphia Airport. Major roadways in Philadelphia include Interstate 95, the Schuylkill Expressway, a portion of Interstate 76 that runs along the Schuylkill River, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Interstate 676 and US Highway 1.

Philadelphia is well-known for its famous historical attractions including: the Betsy Ross House; Independence Hall, the birthplace of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; the Liberty Bell Center; and the Fireman’s Hall Museum. While Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is most famously known as the birthplace of American democracy, it is also the city of firsts. Philadelphia is home to the nation's first public grammar school, America's first botanical garden, first public library, first volunteer fire department, first university in America, the University of Pennsylvania, and the first stock exchange in the United States. These and many more firsts, make Philly, as it is called by its residents, first in their eyes.