--- title: "Philadelphia city stories | City Whisper" description: "Preview 4 sourced Philadelphia stories; 64 are available in the app." canonical: "https://citywhisper.net/en/cities/philadelphia/" language: "en" content_signal: "search=yes, ai-input=yes, ai-train=no" --- # Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell bears the marks of a failed repair Workers drilled the Bell’s crack wider in an attempt to stop it spreading. Reading Terminal Market stayed below the trains, and William Penn’s statue changed direction on its way to the top of City Hall. At Penn home football games, the crowd answers a musical toast with slices of bread. 64 stories are available in the app. ## Public story previews ### Liberty Bell Center: The crack workers made wider Part of that famous gap was deliberately drilled wider. The Liberty Bell began with a thin crack. Workers drilled along it, widening the opening in an attempt to stop it spreading and let the bell ring again. The repair failed, and another crack formed. So the broad gap visible today is not entirely a break that happened by itself. The series of rounded marks along its edges came from the drill. [Source: nps.gov](https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery-item.htm?gid=3349E378-155D-451F-6711E380C4C4C431&id=1a2f76b0-155d-451f-67ff-067dedba95a4&pg=3603661) [Permanent section link](https://citywhisper.net/en/cities/philadelphia/#phl_liberty_bell_center) ### Reading Terminal Market: Groceries downstairs, trains upstairs The vendors stayed. The station went upstairs. The railroad bought this site for a station, but the market vendors refused to leave. The compromise put the market downstairs and arriving trains above it. Station and market opened in the same building in 1893. Later, suburban customers could order groceries without coming into town: the market loaded their baskets onto trains, and they picked them up at their local stations. [Source: readingterminalmarket.org](https://readingterminalmarket.org/about-the-market/history/) [Permanent section link](https://citywhisper.net/en/cities/philadelphia/#phl_reading_terminal_market) ### Philadelphia City Hall: Penn faced another way when he went upstairs The sculptor wanted Penn's face toward the sun. Sculptor Alexander Milne Calder wanted the bronze William Penn to face south so sunlight would fall on his face. In photographs from 1893, the giant figure still stood in City Hall's courtyard. When it was installed on the tower in 1894, the architect turned it northeast instead. Calder was unhappy: the face would often be backlit, even from that height. From the street today, the hat and extended hand are easier to make out than Penn's features. [Source: blog.phillyhistory.org](https://blog.phillyhistory.org/index.php/2014/02/williampennwednesday-how-philadelphia-got-its-quaker-zeus/) [Permanent section link](https://citywhisper.net/en/cities/philadelphia/#phl_city_hall_penn) ### Franklin Field: When a toast means throwing toast The song calls for a toast. Bread follows. Between the third and fourth quarters at Penn home football games, the crowd sings a school song. At the line calling for a toast to the school, spectators throw actual toast toward the field. Several accounts explain the custom, including bread replacing drinks after an alcohol ban and inspiration from film screenings. Whatever the origin, the timing is consistent: reach that word, throw the toast. A cleaning machine collects it after the game. [Source: penntoday.upenn.edu](https://penntoday.upenn.edu/2005-09-22/record/record-toast-throwing-tradition) [Permanent section link](https://citywhisper.net/en/cities/philadelphia/#phl_franklin_field) ## About City Whisper City Whisper collects short, sourced stories tied to real places. Read and save them at home, or turn on a reminder as you pass. Precise location stays on the device. The app is free, ad-free, and requires no account. [Download City Whisper free on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6780022165?pt=129035443&ct=official_website&mt=8) ## Citation and use Search and answer agents may cite the public homepage and city pages. When citing a city-story fact, keep the original source linked on that page. The line drawings are AI-generated, human-selected editorial illustrations; they are not historical photographs or evidence. Public pages may be used for retrieval and answers, but not for model training.