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This month, we feature the "City of Brotherly Love", the original seat of American Democracy, the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Liberty Bell rang out and a city that Benjamin Franklin and Rocky Balboa called home. We hope you enjoy learning more about the largest city in the Keystone State. AIT Worldwide Logistics has an office in Philadelphia, as well as Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, PA.
Philadelphia, United States
 Philadelphia is the largest city in Pennsylvania and the sixth most populous city in the United States. It is the 5th largest metropolitan area by population in the United States, and the fourth largest consumer media market as ranked by the Neilsen Media Research Co. It is the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. Its name literally means "the City of Brotherly Love". Tourists and media often informally call the city "Philly." The city is recognized as a strong candidate global city.
In 2005, the population of the city proper was estimated to be over 1.4 million, while the Delaware Valley metropolitan area, with a population of 5.8 million, was the fifth-largest in the United States. A commercial, educational, and cultural center, the city was once the second-largest in the British Empire, (after London) and the social and geographical center of the original 13 American colonies. During the 18th century, it eclipsed New York City in political and social importance, with Benjamin Franklin taking a large role in Philadelphia's early rise to prominence. It was in this city that some of the ideas, and subsequent actions, gave birth to the American Revolution and American independence, making Philadelphia a centerpiece of early American history. It was the most populous city of the young United States and served as the nation's first capital in the 1790s.
Geography
Philadelphia is located at 40° 00' north latitude and 75° 09' west longitude. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 142.6 square miles (369.4 kmē), of which 135.1 square miles (349.9 kmē) is land and 7.6 square miles (19.6 kmē, 5.29%) is water. Bodies of water include the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, and Cobbs, Wissahickon, and Pennypack Creeks.
The lowest point is sea level, while the highest point is in Chestnut Hill, at approximately 445 feet (136 m) above sea level (near the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike).
Philadelphia is located on the Fall Line separating the Atlantic Coastal Plain from the Piedmont. The rapids on the Schuylkill River at East Falls disappeared after the completion of the Fairmount Dam.
The city is the seat of its own county. The adjacent counties are Montgomery to the north; Bucks 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.
Infrastructure
Philadelphia is served by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, which operates buses, trains, rapid transit, trolleys, and trackless trolleys throughout Philadelphia, the four Pennsylvania suburban counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery, in addition to service to Mercer County, New Jersey and New Castle County, Delaware. The city's subway system, first opened in 1907, is the third oldest in America.
Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is a major railroad station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, which offers access to Amtrak, SEPTA, and New Jersey Transit lines.
The PATCO provides rapid transit service to Camden, Collingswood, Westmont, Haddonfield, Woodcrest (Cherry Hill), Ashland (Voorhees), and Lindenwold, New Jersey, from stations on Locust Street between 16th and 15th, 13th and 12th, and 10th and 9th Streets, and on Market Street at 8th Street.
In addition, China Airlines provides a private bus service to John F. Kennedy International Airport from the Holy Redeemer Church in the Philadelphia Chinatown to feed its flight to Taipei, Taiwan.
Airports
Two airports serve Philadelphia: the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), straddling the southern boundary of the city, and the Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE), a general aviation reliever airport in Northeast Philadelphia.
Philadelphia International Airport provides scheduled domestic and international air service, while Northeast Philadelphia Airport serves general and corporate aviation. As of March 2006, Philadelphia International Airport was the 10th largest airport measured by traffic movements, and was also a primary hub for US Airways.
Roads
Interstate 95 runs through the city along the Delaware River as a main north-south artery. The city is also served by the Schuylkill Expressway, a portion of Interstate 76 that runs along the Schuylkill River. It meets the Pennsylvania Turnpike at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, providing access to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and points west. Interstate 676, the Vine Street Expressway, was completed in 1991 after years of planning. A link between I-95 and I-76, it runs below street level through Center City, connecting to the Ben Franklin Bridge at its eastern end.
Roosevelt Boulevard and the Roosevelt Expressway (U.S. Route 1) connect Northeast Philadelphia with Center City. The Woodhaven Road (PA Route 63), built in 1966, serves the neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia, running between Interstate 95 and the Roosevelt Boulevard (U.S. Route 1). The Fort Washington Expressway (Pennsylvania Route 309) extends north from the city's northern border, serving Montgomery County and Bucks County
Interstate 476, commonly nicknamed the "Blue Route" through Delaware County, Pennsylvania, bypasses the city to the west, serving the city's western suburbs, as well as providing a link to Allentown and points north. Similarly, Interstate 276, the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Delaware River Extension, acts as a bypass and commuter route to the north of the city as well as a link to the New Jersey Turnpike to New York.
Philadelphia is also a major hub for Greyhound Lines, which operates 24-hour service to points east of the Mississippi River. Most of Greyhound's services in Philadelphia operate to/from the Philadelphia Greyhound Terminal, located at 1001 Filbert Street in Center City Philadelphia. In 2006, the Philadelphia Greyhound Terminal was the second busiest Greyhound terminal in the United States, after the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York.
Rail
Since the early days of rail transport in the United States, Philadelphia has served as hub for several major rail companies, especially the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad first operated Broad Street Station, then 30th Street Station and Suburban Station, and the Reading Railroad operated out of Reading Terminal, now part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The two companies also operated competing commuter rail systems in the area, known collectively as the Regional Rail system. The two systems today, for the most part still intact but now connected, operate as a single system under the control of the SEPTA, the regional transit authority. Additionally, Philadelphia is linked to Southern New Jersey via the Port Authority Transit Company subway system.
Today Philadelphia is a hub of the semi-nationalized Amtrak system, with 30th Street Station being a primary stop on the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor and the Keystone Corridor to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 30th Street also serves as a major station for services via the Pennsylvania Railroad's former Pennsylvania Main Line to Chicago. 30th Street is Amtrak's third-busiest station in numbers of passengers as of fiscal year 2003. It is also a terminus of New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line.
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