This year, Philadelphia’s main parade fittingly takes place in Historic Philadelphia. This will be followed by fireworks at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The fireworks display will begin around 10:30 p.m. The fireworks display marks the culmination of the city's famous Wawa Welcome America! festival, which lasts for 10 days in total. For the best viewing, park your lawn chair on Lemon Hill, Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Boathouse Row, Kelly Drive, Martin Luther King Drive, or in Schuykill River Park.
Benjamin Franklin Parkway is a scenic boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Named for favorite son Benjamin Franklin, the mile-long Parkway cuts diagonally across the grid plan pattern of Center City's Northwest quadrant. It starts at Philadelphia City Hall, curves around Logan Circle, and ends before the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Parkway is the spine of Philadelphia's Museum District. Some of the city's most famous sights are here: Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, Swann Memorial Fountain, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute, Moore College of Art and Design, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Rodin Museum, Eakins Oval, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From its northern end, the Parkway provides access to Fairmount Park through Kelly Drive, Martin Luther King Drive (formerly West River Drive), the Schuylkill River Trail, and the Schuylkill Expressway.
In a city famous for its planning, the Parkway represents one of the earliest examples of urban renewal in the United States. The road was constructed to ease heavy industrial congestion in Center City and to restore Philadelphia's natural and artistic beauty.
French urban planner Jacques Gréber designed the Parkway in 1917 to emulate the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The route was determined by an axis drawn from City Hall Tower to a fixed point on the hill that William Penn called "Fairmount", now the site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[1] The Champs-Élysées terminates at the Arc de Triomphe, and the Parkway's terminating at the Art Museum gives the notion of "a slice of Paris in Philadelphia." The Parkway also has an international flavor by being lined with flags of countries from around the world. Like Broad Street's nickname, "Avenue of the Arts", or Market Street's, "Avenue of Technology", the Parkway is also called the "Avenue of Remembrance".
No comments:
Post a Comment