Independence Hall

This guide to Independence Hall in Philadelphia lingers on September 17, 1787, as delegates line up to sign the Constitution and an exhausted, eighty-one-year-old Benjamin Franklin turns to the men beside him. All summer he had sat facing George Washington's chair, staring at a half-sun carved into its back, unable to tell if it was rising or setting. The guide also reaches back eleven years, to the same room's earlier vote for independence in 1776 and the signing that followed. Stand where Franklin sat and look toward that chair yourself.