Philadelphia - The Liberty Bell

This is the second post about our time at Independence National Historic Park:

http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm

There are three basic sections, though you could break them down further.

With something as iconic as the Liberty Bell that is still relatively small, it would be easy to just file past it, think "Yep, that's a bell", and move on. The park makes that a better experience.

First of all you start with the foundation of the President's House. When the government was still based in Philadelphia and Washington DC was under construction, George Washington lived here. Although the building has been gone for years, the foundations were discovered and it is set up so that you can get a glimpse of the archaeological dig, with information about that.

You can then follow walls that are set up to give a sense of continuity between the two, which also hold many placards with information about the bell. This includes not just its early history, but people who have come to see it, tours it has taken, and even when there was an April Fool's joke that Taco Bell was buying it and changing the name.

This way, once you get to the bell you have a context and appreciation for it, and you still may not spend that long looking at it, but you may feel more about it. It was excellently done.

The third part is still my favorite though. We'll cover that next week.