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In less than 100 years after it was founded, the fledgling city of Philadelphia grew to international prominence and was truly to take its place in history in its role in the war for independence. Beginning in the 1760s, after the French and Indian War, Britain tightened its economic and political hold over the American colonies by raising taxation and placing stricter regulations on trading. In response, colonists became increasingly supportive of independence.
In a 1774 meeting at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, the First Continental Congress made its displeasure known by adopting a boycott against British goods. By the time of the Second Continental Congress, which met a year later, the American Revolution had already effectively begun with the outbreak of fighting between British troops and colonists in Massachusetts.
On July 4, 1776, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. Little more than a decade later, in 1787, the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention drafted the Constitution of the new United States of America.
From 1776 to1800, Philadelphia served as the American capital until Washington, DC became the new nation's seat of government. In 1800, Philadelphia was America's largest city, followed by New York, Baltimore, Boston, and Charleston. It was to retain this distinction until 1830. Today it's still the second largest city on the East coast.
Of course, Philadelphia's history doesn't stop there. It was also to play a role in the Civil War as the first large city north of the Mason-Dixon Line to become involved in the hostilities and as a vital center of the abolitionist movement. Philadelphia housed several regiments of the Union army and, throughout the conflict, became an important provider of war supplies, including arms and ammunition as well as uniforms. The Philadelphia Naval Yard built warships and fitted out other vessels for combat, and the city military hospitals cared for more than 150,000 troops.
The provision of uniforms to Civil War troops was to have a profound effect on the economic future of the city, cementing, as it did, Philadelphia's manufacturing power-it already was a leader in the construction of railroads-and leaving behind the agrarian economy on which the city had grown. Consequently, jobs in manufacturing and in associated industries grew, along with population, immigration, and, inevitably, the phenomenon we have since learned to call urban sprawl. William Penn's neat grid rapidly became a thing of the past.
The industrial growth of the mid-20th century forced a movement to the suburbs and, with it, a serious look at the future of Philadelphia. People were moving out of the city, following the jobs and building new lives, the urban center was aging and decaying, and transportation was becoming more historical than functional. In response, planners began a restoration and revitalization of the inner city that still continues today, replacing old buildings with modern ones, developing open, green spaces, and improving transportation.
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