Manayunk

This guide to Manayunk in Philadelphia opens with a homeowner known as O'Brien, standing on a stepladder with a garden hose, soaking every rider who dragged up the steepest block on the route of the Philadelphia International Championship bike race. Nobody paid him and nobody asked him to, but for years his front yard became a shrine along the seventeen percent grade, drawing riders like Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, and Greg Henderson. The guide also traces the neighborhood's name back to a Lenape word tied to the Schuylkill River curling below, and the thousands of cowbells that still shake the rowhouses on race day.