Cool Stuff You Didn’t Know About Philadelphia (Part 4)

If you follow the CCT blog (and, if you don’t, the better question is “why not?”), then you have read our series on Cool Stuff About Philadelphia That You Didn’t Know. This is the latest installment of the series, filled with trivia about the City of Brotherly Love.

Here’s even more cool stuff you didn’t know about the city of Philadelphia.

We might feel like Philadelphia is the center of the universe, but it’s a fact that a quarter of America’s population lives within a five-hour drive of the city. Major city hubs like New York City, Baltimore, Washington, and Atlantic City are all located close by, making Philly a doable day trip for one in four United States citizens. Philadelphia International Airport is also among the nation’s twenty busiest, meaning that people are coming and going all the time around here.

Among Philly’s more favorable nicknames is The City of Murals. Seemingly everywhere you go here, you run into some incredible street art. Where did all the murals come from? Well, city leadership was looking for a way to combat graffiti when they hit upon the idea of covering surfaces with art so taggers would be disinclined to strike there. Today, Philadelphia is home to some 3,800 murals and ranks among the top mural arts organizations anywhere on the planet.

In a previous Cool Stuff post, we talked about Philly’s many firsts. Did you know that Philadelphia hosted the first-ever Republican National Convention? It has since hosted the RNC six times. It also hosted the Democratic National Convention just last year, as well as in 1936 and 1948.

Here’s one from USA Today: “Of the 100 questions on the U.S. citizenship test study guide, half of the answers can be found in Philadelphia.” Philly is a city of living history, and possibly the best place in America to go if you want to learn more about the country’s past.

That’s a wrap on another edition of Cool Stuff About Philly. Keep your eyes peeled for even more fun facts!