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1. PHILIDELPHIA
A Different Experience
By Travelbystander.com

2. PHILIDELPHIA

3. Philadelphia has two nicknames; Philly and The City
of Brotherly Love. By 1750, it had overtaken Boston in
the quest to become the busiest port in what were
then the British colonies of America, and had also
become the second largest in the British Empire, with
only London being ahead of it. The city has since
then become a cultural and commercial centre, as
well as an important manufacturing base, also
having interests in banking, biotechnology, scientific
instruments, oil refineries, chemicals, paper and
printing.
On a fascinating, note is Philadelphia’s Eastern State
Penitentiary, which had opened its doors in 1829 as
part of a controversial initiative to condition the
behaviour of its inmates through a regime of
"confinement in solitude with labor", its main tenet
being absolute isolation. The prisoners were confined
in small single cells, each with a tiny backyard, and
were never to see another human being during their
entire period of incarceration.

4. The building, a castle-like façade apparently
constructed in this fashion to intimidate European
immigrants, rapidly became a blueprint as one of the
most copied buildings in the early days of the newly
established United States of America. Its influence
was not confined to that nation either; over 300
prisons worldwide based their construction on the
Eastern State Penitentiary’s radial floor plan (shaped
like a wagon wheel). It is said that many inmates
became insane while incarcerated within the dour
walls of this prison, which finally closed its doors as a
working house of correction in 1971 and now is open
to the public as a U.S. National Historic Landmark,
making for a truly fascinating visit.
At some point or another, some of America’s best
known criminals were held within this prison’s walls;
these included William Francis "Willie" Sutton Jr., the
notorious bank robber, and the infamous Al Capone,
his cell being still decorated with some of his personal
belongings.