The Schuylkill Expressway, a clogged four-lane artery into Center City Philadelphia, requires emotional stamina and automotive endurance. The eastbound lanes, crammed between wooded hills and the Schuylkill River, present a stop-and-go orchestra dictated by traffic volume, weather, and sudden exits. Drivers slowly pass trains, the ubiquitous Action News ZooBalloon, and remnants of Philadelphia’s industrial past before the city’s skyline emerges beneath the arched Girard Bridge.
The expressway leads to a stunning structural and arboreal vista of gleaming glass and water. Boathouse Row, 19th-century gingerbread houses that designate allegiance to university rowing clubs, charmingly commands the languid river. On warmer afternoons, rowers furiously keep pace with bikers along Kelly Drive, an alternative route for wearied commuters. Just beyond the boat houses is the Fairmount Water Works, an elegant reminder of the city’s history of municipal innovation. Dominating the entire scene, stoic and majestic above Fairmount Park and beneath rising skyscrapers, is the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
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