Portal:Philadelphia/Intro

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (also referred to as "Philly" and the "the City of Brotherly Love") is the fifth most populous city in the United States and the largest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, both in area and population. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County. Philadelphia has the third largest downtown residential population in the U.S., behind New York and Chicago. The Philadelphia metropolitan area is the fourth largest in the U.S. by the current official definition, with some 5.7 million people, though other definitions place it sixth behind the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington-Baltimore. Philadelphia is the central city of the Delaware Valley metropolitan area.

The City is one of the oldest and most historically significant in the U.S. During part of the 18th century, the city was the first capital and most populous city of the United States. At that time, it eclipsed Boston and New York City in political and social importance, with Benjamin Franklin playing an extraordinary role in Philadelphia's rise.