Look Mom, I’m Flying!

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Throughout Philadelphia’s history, photographers have enjoyed taking pictures from the upper levels of City Hall. This photo shows the hustle and bustle of Broad Street in the late 1920s. These kind of shots are helpful for seeing just how “broad” Broad Street really is, as well as for demonstrating traffic patterns during the period. In the center of the street is a pile of wood and other construction materials. What was being built? Possibly, workers used them to build the south extension of the Broad Street Subway. They completed the first section a month after this photo was taken in 1928, although the line only ran from City Hall north to Olney Avenue. The southern section was not completed until two years later. It extended the line to South Street and later to Snyder Avenue.