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Philly feels smaller than Boston when driving in. Its rally does. It feels much larger on the ground due to the structural density and unending straight line streets. But driving in on 95/I=93 Boston feels ALOT more impressive.
Absolutely nothing on the Delaware Expressway compare to I-93 from the south or north.
That's a stretch. Philadelphia looks large and impressive when entering from many angles (though many highway vistas are further from the core), and I've seen the impressive view driving into Boston too.
I just did the drive into Philly with my boyfriend over Thanksgiving, and he is always impressed by the scale of the skyline stretching from river to river.
I know we can pick and choose Google street views to support our preferences, but per my experience in each city, Boston doesn't give me the impression that it's bigger than Philadelphia on the ground or from afar.
South of Philly on I-76 coming in over the Delaware R,
the skyline is probably its most spectacular angle,
but the view over the Ben Franklin is quite nice too.
Both are very impressive.
Boston too has a few angles where the skyline looks great,
such as out over the water when you're flying out/in over south side of the Harbor,
especially at night.......
then out toward Waltham/Arlington at elevation in the hills.
The Philadelphia skyline looks large and impressive when entering from many angles (though some highway vistas are further from the core), and I've seen the impressive view driving into Boston too.
I know we can pick and choose Google street views to help our points, but per my experience in each city, Boston doesn't give me the impression that it's bigger than Philadelphia on the ground or from afar.
I just did the drive into Philly with my boyfriend over Thanksgiving, and the first time he saw the skyline view a few years ago, his exact words "I didn't realize how massive Philly is".
Only the bolded comes close to what I shared with Boston. The rest seem pretty average. Ive been by the staidum many times on 95- its part of what feel svery underwhelming to me for a city of 1.5M.
Philly skyline always felt way too compact and presents itself all at once. Honest to goodness my thought when I approach Philly is that's a small skyline for such a big city. Phillys street level life is awesome though
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 11-28-2022 at 10:52 AM..
Absolutely nothing on the Delaware Expressway compare to I-93 from the south or north.
That's because that's an apples-to-oranges comparison. I-76, I-676 is the right interstate to compare to I-93. Both go to Cambridge/University City and out some of the more populated suburbs. I-95 just runs along the side of the city for many miles and is buried next to Center City.
76 gives you the cross-section of the city and Philly's "size" on the highway isn't determined by the way the skyline looks (though it does look awesome from the Walt Whitman Bridge), but after you have already drive 20 minutes in the city and you bend another big hill and get off on another big bridge, it still very much feels like your "in the city" crossing into East Falls: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0071...7i16384!8i8192
That's because that's an apples-to-oranges comparison. I-76, I-676 is the right interstate to compare to I-93. Both go to Cambridge/University City and out some of the more populated suburbs. I-95 just runs along the side of the city for many miles and is buried next to Center City.
76 gives you the cross-section of the city and Philly's "size" on the highway isn't determined by the way the skyline looks (though it does look awesome from the Walt Whitman Bridge), but after you have already drive 20 minutes in the city and you bend another big hill and get off on another big bridge, it still very much feels like your "in the city" crossing into East Falls: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0071...7i16384!8i8192
I'm kinda surprised you danced all around the city and didn't include this view from the Schuylkill Expressway northbound (I-76 westbound) between the South Street (346) and 30th Street Station (345) interchanges, perhaps the most iconic view of the city skyline...
or this one from the same highway southbound (I-76 eastbound) at the Spring Garden Street/Haverford Avenue (343) partial interchange, which is probable the best wide-angle view of the skyline.
The trouble with the view from the Girard Point Bridge is: If you're driving on I-95, you won't be able to appreciate it fully unless you turn your head away from the road, something I wouldn't recommend unless traffic's extremely light (and maybe not even then because of the viewing angle), for the bridge's top deck carries the southbound lanes, headed away from the city. The view from the northbound lanes, unfortunately, is blocked by the top deck and the trusses supporting it. There's a nearby bridge offering an unobstructed northbound view, but the one from the Platt Bridge (PA 291 – Penrose Avenue, the route from the airport to I-76 westbound) isn't as good.
Edited to add: Of course, the other "iconic" view of the skyline is a little off-center, and not as comprehensive — and to enjoy it, you need to climb a set of stairs (most people doing this prefer to run up them, like the guy who made this view famous did):
This one. It is, however, the only iconic skyline view that includes (and centers) Philadelphia City Hall Tower, which is blocked from view from just about all the highway views of the skyline now. And once you've taken it in, you really should turn around and go into the building you're standing in front of.
Last edited by MarketStEl; 11-29-2022 at 04:27 AM..
I'm kinda surprised you danced all around the city and didn't include this view from the Schuylkill Expressway northbound (I-76 westbound) between the South Street (346) and 30th Street Station (345) interchanges, perhaps the most iconic view of the city skyline...
or this one from the same highway southbound (I-76 eastbound) at the Spring Garden Street/Haverford Avenue (343) partial interchange, which is probable the best wide-angle view of the skyline.
The trouble with the view from the Girard Point Bridge is: If you're driving on I-95, you won't be able to appreciate it fully unless you turn your head away from the road, something I wouldn't recommend unless traffic's extremely light (and maybe not even then because of the viewing angle), for the bridge's top deck carries the southbound lanes, headed away from the city. The view from the northbound lanes, unfortunately, is blocked by the top deck and the trusses supporting it. There's a nearby bridge offering an unobstructed northbound view, but the one from the Platt Bridge (PA 291 – Penrose Avenue, the route from the airport to I-76 westbound) isn't as good.
Yeah, cpomp shared a few of 76 coming around south philly into center city. I do think the one coming up to the FMC tower looks awesome in person (especially at night) but the skyline gets cut off a bit on google maps. I drove over the Platt Bridge for years, and I agree it's a cool view. If we are talking about seeing the big buildings, I do like the 76-E view as you come past the art museum. Coming into NYC on I-95, I always loved how you could see the Empire State building over top of the hills in North Jersey, and CTC finally gave Philly a building big enough to do the same.
I really do think though, that were Philly ends up separating itself is when you are far away from Center City and it's still real urban. The US-1 bridge view I shared really doesn't do the real view justice. Like being able to see City Ave. on top of the one hill and the towers on the other side of the river, and then just like the endless rows of rowhouses and small apartment buildings below. That's when you realize that 1.6 million people really do live in the 130 square mile grid of Philadelphia
A few of Boston that show how drastically different the skyline can look, depending on angle. This is the result of having two pockets of skyline, with the midrise connective tissue mentioned upthread. I never get the impression is feels bigger than Philadelphia... Does it appear more dispersed across a wider part of the city? Certainly coming from the West, it does to me.
That's because that's an apples-to-oranges comparison. I-76, I-676 is the right interstate to compare to I-93. Both go to Cambridge/University City and out some of the more populated suburbs. I-95 just runs along the side of the city for many miles and is buried next to Center City.
76 gives you the cross-section of the city and Philly's "size" on the highway isn't determined by the way the skyline looks (though it does look awesome from the Walt Whitman Bridge), but after you have already drive 20 minutes in the city and you bend another big hill and get off on another big bridge, it still very much feels like your "in the city" crossing into East Falls: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.0071...7i16384!8i8192
This really only further my point most of these are unimpressive save for the last one and the one that’s like the Walt Whitman bridge. Which really is just a function of Philly being super duper flat. It just doesn’t compare to Boston and the angles I shared. And in my opinion it isn’t even close.
Even the last image you shared is absolutely crushed by the view on I-93 south coming from north of Boston, crushed. It’s not about apples and oranges- I’ve been to Philly enough times coming in from south here in Baltimore, north coming from Boston, and east coming from Burlington NJ. Most of what you shared is trees. I don’t really see any “edge cities”.
I didn’t include the angles of when you approach Boston from Cambridge either. Philly doesn’t have an answer to that. Mostly because the structures on the sides of its bridges block some of the views.
A few of Boston that show how drastically different the skyline can look, depending on angle. This is the result of having two pockets of skyline, with the midrise connective tissue mentioned upthread. I never get the impression is feels bigger than Philadelphia... Does it appear more dispersed across a wider part of the city? Certainly coming from the West, it does to me.
I think you've hit on a key difference between Boston and Philadelphia here.
When I moved here in 1983, Philadelphia had a mullet of a skyline, a consequence of the unwritten rule that no building could rise above the 491-foot-high brim of William Penn's hat atop City Hall Tower.
Now, its skyline is a high-rise exclamation point. That exclamation point combined with the vast expanses of rowhouses studded with American versions of European hill towns like Manayunk that thedirtypirate showed you makes you realize that you are in a very urban place.
Boston's skyline is a large clump of not-as-tall buildings spread across a larger area, with a stretch of mid-rises connecting that clump to the three neighboring yet somewhat isolated tall towers rising above the Back Bay. Because of the clump, it looks more substantial than Philadelphia's skyline, but it doesn't scream "big city" the way the combination of elements does in Philadelphia.
(The city that I think Philadelphia comes closest to emulating in combining vast tracts of urbanity with a dramatic skyline is Chicago.)
I'm kinda surprised you danced all around the city and didn't include this view from the Schuylkill Expressway northbound (I-76 westbound) between the South Street (346) and 30th Street Station (345) interchanges, perhaps the most iconic view of the city skyline...
or this one from the same highway southbound (I-76 eastbound) at the Spring Garden Street/Haverford Avenue (343) partial interchange, which is probable the best wide-angle view of the skyline.
The trouble with the view from the Girard Point Bridge is: If you're driving on I-95, you won't be able to appreciate it fully unless you turn your head away from the road, something I wouldn't recommend unless traffic's extremely light (and maybe not even then because of the viewing angle), for the bridge's top deck carries the southbound lanes, headed away from the city. The view from the northbound lanes, unfortunately, is blocked by the top deck and the trusses supporting it. There's a nearby bridge offering an unobstructed northbound view, but the one from the Platt Bridge (PA 291 – Penrose Avenue, the route from the airport to I-76 westbound) isn't as good.
Edited to add: Of course, the other "iconic" view of the skyline is a little off-center, and not as comprehensive — and to enjoy it, you need to climb a set of stairs (most people doing this prefer to run up them, like the guy who made this view famous did):
This one. It is, however, the only iconic skyline view that includes (and centers) Philadelphia City Hall Tower, which is blocked from view from just about all the highway views of the skyline now. And once you've taken it in, you really should turn around and go into the building you're standing in front of.
The second image and last image make Philly skyline look all of 11 buildings wide. That’s what I’m talking about. Bosotn haas angles like that too, but Philly skyline seems to drop off a cliff-a steep one too seeing as the buildings are taller.
This is fine but for as big a city it is- compare to the 93 approaching Boston it just has always looked like way fewer buildings and less layered/stacked than Boston. Which makes sense because by some definition Boston has more high rises- to me, personally I can feel that.
Approaching baoton I blocked more tunnels, bridges, and more “downtown areas” it feels like it has some urbanism to spare whereas phillys feels like it doesn’t really. But as I said the feeling changes on the ground outside of downtown. I don’t think center city feels like super big city to me- it’s approachable in that it’s very gridded and narrow street walkable and compact. It’s always benne the extent of you broken urbanity for me for Philly.
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