By which means the city would
naturally meet in the centre; but they have not only deviated from the
original plan, by running the city along the banks of the Delaware,
_beyond_ the aforesaid streets, which formed the bounds in that direction,
but have left the _Scuylkill_ front without a single street.
Philadelphia is situate in latitude 39 deg. 56 min. north, and long. 75
deg. 8 min. west from Greenwich, on a narrow neck of land, between the
rivers Delaware and Scuylkill, on the Pensylvania banks of the latter,
where this river is about one mile wide, and one hundred and twenty
(following it's course) from the Atlantic Ocean. This noble river affords
a safe navigation for vessels of a thousand tuns burden up to the wharfs
of the city. The Scuylkill (though by no means so wide) has nearly the
same depth of water.
Philadelphia is the first port in the Union. The total value of it's
exports in the year 1793, was 695736 dollars; the total of flower shipped
in the year 1792 was 420000 barrels, and in the spring only of 1793 it
exceeded 200000 barrels.
The total of inward entries at Philadelphia, in 1793, was 1414 vessels of
different sizes, of which 477 were ships or brigs.
It is foreign from the subject of this city, but I cannot help informing
you, that the imports of the _United States_ from _Great Britain_
alone, in the year 1791, were stated at 19502070 dollars, (chiefly of
_manufactured articles_) and have been considerably increasing every
year since.
By a slight inspection of the plan, you will perceive the great regularity
observed in laying out this city; the streets intersect each other at
right angles, the centre street, north and south, is 113 feet wide; that
east and west 100 feet; and the other principal streets 50 feet wide. Had
equal care been taken to build the houses uniformly, and their height in
proportion to the width of the streets, this city would have been
uncommonly beautiful; but except that the fronts of the buildings were not
permitted to extend beyond the line laid down in the plan, every man built
his house (to use the language of the first settlers,) "as it seemed good
in his own eyes."
The first object of an industrious emigrant, who means to settle in
Philadelphia, is to purchase a lot of ground in one of the vacant streets.
He erects a small building forty or fifty feet from the line laid out for
him by the city surveyor, and lives there till he can afford to build a
house; when his former habitation serves him for a kitchen and wash-house.
I have observed buildings in this state in the heart of the city; but they
are more common in the outskirts.
