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joeltheprocess76 t1_ixurlrk wrote

When you look at the original plans of the city. You’ll see William Penn’s layout of 5 squares with city hall being where the center square lies. It’s all measured in the same distance. In fact. If you stand at City Hall. All the streets reset at 0. So you’ll go 100 South Broad which is one Block away. 200 South Broad is 2 blocks away etc

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c4seyj0nes t1_ixv96la wrote

And every block is approximately 1/10th of a mile. So if you need to walk from 3rd St to 8th St, you know it’s 0.5 miles. It works north south too with the block numbers: the 1400 S block is about 1.4 miles south of Market St.

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1live4downvotes t1_ixvd33j wrote

which still makes me so mad that we have literally 5 subway stops between 2nd street and city hall, and then none between 15th and 30th. Like come on guys... who really though that was the best option?

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MonkeyPanls OP t1_ixvqp5b wrote

When the MFL was built, there wasn't any reason to walk around there. Behold, the Chinese Wall.

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1live4downvotes t1_ixvt6vr wrote

huh...ok that makes sense for why there is such a huge gap. What doesn't make sense is why they put 5 subway stops over a 1 mile stretch of the city lol. 2 probably all we need, 3 I guess would be nice for anyone stuck in the middle... but literally 1 every 1/5 of a mile is bonkers lol.

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bensh_ t1_ixx0u7i wrote

Originally there wasn't going to be a 13th St station, but one John Wanamaker insisted on having a stop right outside his department store.

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electric_ranger t1_ixypgqu wrote

John Wannamaker, the first Philadelphian to show off his massive organ outside a subway stop

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Shawna_Love t1_ixvltgk wrote

Only north south blocks start at 0 at City Hall. Market St. is the demarcation for north south blocks. But Broad St. is not the dividing line for east west, Front St is.

So one block north or south of Market is 100, and one block east or west of Front St is 100. Broad st is the 1400 block because it is 14 main blocks west of Front. You only really run into east addresses once you get into Fishtown and Port Richmond because people actually live on the other side of Front St.

What's more is that you only have to address mail east or west if there is a corresponding address. You wouldn't say 200 West Market St because there is no East Market St. But you do have to specify between 200 E or 200 W Girard.

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joeltheprocess76 t1_ixvmcdf wrote

Correction but yes . Also before they decided to make 14th street Broad. It was going to be 12th

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justanawkwardguy t1_ixx7nmq wrote

Well, not every street. Only north-south streets, East-west streeets reset to 0 at front

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