Independence: The park in pictures
Eastern National Park & Monument Association. 1976. Independence: The park in pictures
As you stroll through Independence National Historical Park you will find the scene much as it was during those decisive days when our Nation was born two centuries ago. Though the principals have long departed, reminders of them linger. George Washington seems to peer at the visitor from his portrait in the Second Bank of the United States. You may observe where John Adams argued the patriot cause in the Assembly Room at Independence Hall. You, too, may walk through the arched carriageway from Market Street that led Benjamin Franklin to his courtyard home. Here in Philadelphia, America's Revolutionary leaders — against long odds and with great courage — founded a new nation and guided it through its formative years. Within these brick buildings, aggrieved colonists coordinated their opposition to the English king. Their protest against taxation turned into a cry for liberty, then resolved into a brash assertion of "independency." Here the delegates of 13 states knit a federal system of legislative,executive, and judicial functions, a fabric of government that remains resilient under new challenges today.