PHILADELPHIA. The chief city of Penn sylvania, and the third city in population and importance of the United States, co-extensive with Philadelphia County, having an area of square miles. It is situated in the south eastern corner of the State. at the confluence of the SeImylkill with 11w Delaware, about 50 miles from the month of the Delaware and 100 miles from the Atlantic (wean, in latitude 39° 57' N. and lotrgitude 75° 9' \Y. It is distant from New York by rail 90 miles. from Washington 132, and from Chicago S.
The climate of Philadelphia is considerably milder in winter and warmer in summer than that of the central and western cities of the State. The mean temperature for January is 32.3°, and for July 76.2°. The heat during July and August is often very intense, the temperature rising sometimes above 11)0°. The average an nual rainfall in the city' is about 44 inches, slightiv heavier than that of New York.
DEsiltnerioN. William Penn founded the city on the narrow neck of land, some two miles wide, lying between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. Disregarding his plan for a simultaneous growth of the city backward from each river, the early settlers preferred to remain near the Delaware, along which occurred the first north and south expansion of the city. It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that the westward growth of the city reached Broad Street, the half-way line to the Schuyl kill. From this time on the city has grown more rapidly. extending southward to the junction of the two rivers. westward far beyond the Schuylkill to Cobb's Creek. and northward in two main branches, the easternmost following the Delaware to Poquessing Creek, eighteen miles from the southern limit, and the westerly through the suburban region stretching ten miles along the Wissahickon—a tributary of the Schuylkill. In the western and northern sections of the city large areas of open country still exist. From the like-protected lowlands of the south, five feet below the average high tide, the city rises gradually to heights of 443 feet in the hilly regions of the northwest. The general plan of
the streets is determined by the east and west direction of Market Street, the main business thoroughfare, 100 feet wide, which runs directly west from the Delaware, a distance of six miles, separating the city in respect of street num bering into north and south divisions; and by 'Broad Street, 113 feet wide and 12 miles long, which at City Hall Square intersects :Nlarket at right angles. The main portion of the city is laid out with great regularity. the numbered. streets running parallel with Broad, and the named streets with Market. The regularity of the general plan is broken, however. in the portion east of the Schuylkill. by Ridge and (;ermantown avenues, which intersect diagonally the streets north of :\ larket, and by Pas‘yunk and sing avenues, south of Inirket Street; in Philadelphia, Lancaster Avenue, north, and Woodland Avenue, south of Market Street, net in a similar manner. though in this and in other outlying sections there is, in general, less attempt to fallow strictly the of the older portions of the city. There are more than 150 miles of streets, of which some 900 miles are paved with brick, stone, or asphalt, 225 macadamized, and the remainder unpaved. The mileage of sewers is 951 and of water mains 1319. The street railways (employ ing the overhead trolley system, and in 1902 carrying 325,801,963 passengers) have a total mileage of 475, and the steam railroads of :360. At the present time (1903) there is under con struction a subway system of four tracks from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, with an elevated extension along Market Street from the Schuyl kill to the city line. Twelve public and twelve railroad bridges cross the Schuylkill. and one railroad bridge the Delaware; and among these are some of the finest structures of the kind in the country.