Philly Continued

On our second day in Philadelphia we walked to Independence Hall. In this room the constitution of the United States was written and edited. Philadelphia was the nation's capital for the first ten years. After ten years they decided to move the capital to a neutral location.

We signed up for the 9:20 a.m. tour which lasted a half hour. Here is the clock tower from where I was waiting outside for our tour to begin.

This is the courtroom in Independence Hall. After Independence Hall we walked to the Benjamin Franklin museum. Since getting a bank shaped like the bust of Benjamin Franklin as a child, I have always been interested in him. He started the first library, the first fire department and the first university. He owned slaves and advertised slaves in his newspapers. In his older years he became an abolitionist. He was a statesperson and an ambassador. He was a scientist and a philosopher. He was a writer and a postmaster. 

After lunch we drove a little out of our way to the north where George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776. The British army had hired some German soldiers called Hessians and they were guarding Trenton, New Jersey. Because there was a winter storm the Hessians thought they could relax. Washington begam transferring 100's of men, 50 horses, and 20 cannons over the icy Delaware River during a storm. They arrived in Trenton at 8 a.m. and won that battle. This meant the American forces could be successful and the tide of the Revolutionary war had changed in our favor.

We drove a few miles into New Jersey to the Washington Crossing State Park. According to a sign I read there, more of the revolutionary war battles happened in New Jersey.

In a barn on the property we found several of the Durham boats that were used to carry the army, the horses, cannons, and supplies across the icy river.