Originally published October 2018; updated October 2019
Philadelphia covers a lot of ground.
In total, the city encompasses about 150 square miles. That’s more than 4 billion square feet. If Philly wanted to turn all its land into football fields, at least 7,000 of them would fit within the borders.
We’ve got a lot of space to go around, but it’s not all treated the same. From the rowhomes of Strawberry Mansion to the skyscrapers of Center City to the woods of Pennypack Park, the landscape of Philadelphia looks very different depending on where you’re standing.
Using Google Earth (and with a hat-tip to The Atlantic) we collected 19 overhead views — each about a tenth of a square mile in area* — that show off Philly’s diverse terrain. Check them out below.
Train tracks and more train tracks near 30th Street Station
William Penn’s hat, plus the rest of City Hall
The orderly, lawn-fronted homes of Mayfair
Fairmount Park is basically broccoli
Buncha highways converging in Northeast Philly
East Passyunk, in all its diagonal glory
Houses surrounding the spokes of Eastern State Penitentiary
Planes stopping at the spokes of PHL Airport
Girard Estates, aka a mini swath of suburbs in deep South Philly
Pennypack Park = trees galore
Good to know: Boathouse Row also looks attractive from above
Kensington, featuring the El and McPherson Square library
You can’t really tell how tall the Comcast towers are
Even from above, UPenn’s campus has an Ivy League vibe
Poplar looks almost suburban from this angle
This refinery takes up a lot of space in Southwest Philly
Home of the world champions…and some other teams too
Strawberry Mansion rowhomes lookin’ like ants
Winchester Park residents basically live in the woods
