© Aerograph by the Aero Service Corporation THE DELAWARE RIVER BRIDGE AS THE AIRMAN SEES IT Across broad Delaware Avenue and its magnificent group of new Municipal Piers is seen the longest suspension bridge in the world, stretching to the

distant shores of Camden. The formal opening is planned for July 4, 1926.

Philadelphia has sixteen existing industries that antedate the Constitution itself; to-day it ranks first in the United States in the manufacture of hosiery and knit goods; first in leather, tanned, curried and finished; first in carpets and rugs; first in hats, fur-felt; first in cotton lace; first in oilcloth; first in saws; first in locomotives; first in cars for street railways.

In a single year the value of the products of the textile industries of Philadelphia was $455,639,000; the value of metal and metal products was $273,589,900; the value of the chemical and allied products was $161,301,500.

The value of sugar refined in Philadelphia in 1922 was $114,409,000, exceeding that of all other products.

The value of printing and publishing products comes second at $100,295,100; and woolen and worsted goods is a close third at $87,219,800.

The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, with a membership of 5,127, is the largest commercial organization in the United States, excepting only the national organization.

The Philadelphia Public School System began in 1818; to-day it has enrolled 277,859 pupils, taught by 7,227 teachers, in 371 school buildings.

The Philadelphia Central High School was established in 1836 and was the first public high school in the United States outside of New England; to-day Philadelphia has eleven Senior High Schools and twelve Junior High Schools, with a Senior High School enrollment of 30,131, and a Junior High School enrollment of 21,215.

Philadelphia to-day is the home of 292 newspapers and other publications, including the oldest daily newspaper in America, and the oldest illustrated weekly.

Franklin's Subscription Library, the first in America, began in 1731 with a handful of books; to-day the Free Library of Philadelphia owns 656,234 bound volumes in 73 languages, and besides the magnificent new building on the Parkway, includes 28 branch libraries.

Philadelphia to-day has 41 Play-grounds and Recreation Centres, and 31 Swimming Pools, including the Bathing Beach at League Island Park; in addition there are 2,892 acres of public parks and park areas, not including Fairmount Park, embracing 3,597 acres.

The Philadelphia Musical Fund Hall was organized in 1824; the Academy of Music was opened in 1857; to-day Philadelphia is known widely as the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, established in 1901.

The first theatre within Philadelphia's city limits was the old Chestnut Street Theatre, built in 1793; to-day 49 theatres, and more than 170 photo-play houses, serve the city.

Founded in 1732, the State in Schuylkill Fishing Company, still flourishing as the oldest club in the world, was adequate to Philadelphia's needs up to Revolutionary times; to-day Philadelphia has over 700 clubs or social organizations.

When William Penn landed in 1682, there was a hotel at Dock Creek to greet him—the Blue Anchor Inn; to-day Philadelphia has 30 important hotels and about 2,000 smaller ones and apartment houses; including the new Benjamin Franklin Hotel, with 1,200 rooms and 1,200 baths.

Philadelphia began its hospital service with the Pennsylvania Hospital (1754); to-day it has 72 hospitals, three of them municipal institutions.

The old Swedish block-house church began its services in 1677; Philadelphia to-day is a city of a thousand churches (1,004).

The first Jewish congregation in Philadelphia, the Mikve Israel, was organized as early as 1747; to-day there are 152 Jewish congregations in Philadelphia.

The first volunteer fire company in America was established in Philadelphia in 1737; to-day the Philadelphia Fire Department includes 59 steam fire-engines, and 29 hook and ladder companies.

The Philadelphia Bureau of Police numbers 4,943 persons, including 4,200 patrolmen, and a Police Band numbering 65 musicians.

The first omnibus line in Philadelphia was established in 1831; horse cars were introduced in 1858; the first electric cars, hailed as “juggernauts of death,” began operation December 15, 1892; to-day the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company owns or operates all the street railways in Philadelphia, in 1924 carrying 872,755,398 passengers, and employing over 6,700 persons.

The first subway and elevated electric car line in Philadelphia was opened on Market Street in 1907; the Frankford “L” was first operated November 5, 1923.

Gas was first made in Philadelphia for exhibition purposes in 1796, for illumination in 1817, and the first Philadelphia Gas Company was chartered in 1835; the introduction of gas throughout the city and its districts was not completed until 1855; to-day the United Gas Improvement Company supplies the city streets with 26,813 free gas lamps, and with 11,489 paid gas lamps; the city maintains also 10,350 gasoline street lamps, and 19,116 electric street lamps.

The first experimental demonstration with a telephone in Philadelphia was made by Alexander Graham Bell at the Centennial Exposition in 1876; to-day the Bell Telephone Company serves 303,490 subscribers in Philadelphia, by means of its great central plant on the Parkway and 44 branch exchanges.

Electric lighting began in Philadelphia in 1882; to-day the Philadelphia Electric Company supplies 360,677 consumers, including the power for the street car service of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, and the power for the electrified line of the Pennsylvania Railroad to Paoli.

The oldest bank in America—the Bank of North America—was chartered in Philadelphia in 1781; to-day Philadelphia has six mutual saving fund societies (with deposits of $294,535,823), eighty-seven trust companies and State banks (with deposits of $625,524,426), and thirty-two national banks (with deposits of $691,936,840).

The Federal Reserve Bank for the Third District is located in Philadelphia.
The first railroad to the West began in Philadelphia in 1834; to-day the Pennsylvania

Railroad System, with headquarters at Broad Street Station, operates a total of 27,662 miles of trackage: 11,602 miles of single track; 4,260 miles of double track; 934 miles of three track; 704 miles of four track; and 10,162 miles of sidings. Over half of this trackage is west of Pittsburgh.

In 1836 the imports through the port of Philadelphia amounted to $15,068,233, and the exports $3,971,555; in ten months for 1924 the imports were $172,021,656, and the exports $87,450,270; a high record was reached in 1919, when the exports were $522,391,091.

The Philadelphia of to-morrow is already casting its sunshine before. Civic, industrial, and social leaders have well under way for the progress and welfare of the community gigantic public and private improvements, many of them authorized and now under construction, involving an aggregate expenditure of over one thousand millions of dollars ($1,048,499,400):

The proposed Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Station, to be erected on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, at Thirtieth and Market Streets, is already more than an architect's dream.

Ground has been broken and construction begun on the colossal Municipal Stadium to be built at Broad and Pattison, designed to accommodate 125,000 spectators, and to play an important part in the coming Sesqui-Centennial celebration.

The magnificent Philadelphia Museum of Art slowly but surely rises on its architectural acropolis overlooking the Parkway.

The proposed Temple of Justice planned for the Parkway will prove a worthy companion for the superb Free Library already completed on the Parkway.

The site for the new Municipal “Annex” to be located on the east side of Penn Square has been acquired and the construction of the bulding is completely planned and under way.

The new two-million dollar Overbrook Senior High School is already above its foundations, and the projected magnificent Trade School for Girls will soon be under constru on.

The Delaware River Bridge, connecting the two great commonwealths of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, will be completed and dedicated July 4th, 1926.

The William Penn Charter School, founded by William Penn in 1689, has just occupied new buildings and a campus of twenty-two acres, on School Lane, Germantown.

The mammoth building on the Parkway of the Insurance Company of North America, founded in 1762, is now ready for use.

The Penn Athletic Club, the finest athletic clubhouse in America, now being erected on Rittenhouse Square, is almost a reality.

The Richmond Station of the Philadelphia Electric Company is being erected at a cost of $21,000,000.

The Elverson Building, the new home of the Philadelphia Inquirer, at Broad and Callowhill Streets; and the magnificent Public Ledger Building, overlooking historic Independence Square; both under recent construction, are now ready for use.

The proposed Chestnut Street Subway is looked forward to with eager expectation for its great public benefits. The Broad Street Subway, under construction, is to cost over $100,000,000

A series of well-planned diagonal avenues and highways connecting outlying districts with the heart of the city await official approval and action.

The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition will bring improvements and development to an important section of the city that is within a radius of four miles of the City Hall.

The Bell Telephone Building on the Parkway, the new Elks Home at Broad and Wood Streets, the Westinghouse Electric Company Building at the western end of Walnut Street bridge, the notable Benjamin Franklin Hotel at Ninth and Chestnut Streets, are recent completions that belong to the new era dawning on the Philadelphia of to-morrow.

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Highways and byways in and about Philadelphia are rich in records of the progress and achievements of a free people in enjoyment of 150 years of American Independence. There is no nook or corner of Philadelphia and its surroundings not included in the routes which follow in the pages of this book.