A major period during American history that I will look at is the time when Old City Philadelphia was being built. This was during the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. At a time when this wonderful country was in its infancy we needed to show the world that we are a new, rich, and powerful country. To me the ideas and architecture of the buildings in Old City reflected what America was about. Philadelphia set out to show the country that we were a strong nation that was not going to fail.
The First and Second Bank of the United States showed this to the country. The First Bank of the United States modeled buildings from ancient Greece, a previous world power. The Second Bank of the United States resembled the Parthenon in Greece. Back then walking up to these banks must have been an amazing experience. The tall Doric columns make you immediately think of power and money.
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United StatesThat is exactly what they wanted and they clearly accomplished this goal. The symbol of power helped people believe that what America was doing was right. At a time when the people that came to America where unsure what would happen in their lives, it was important for America to calm these fears. They needed to let people know that this is America, we are powerful, and we are going to make it, just as the people coming to this country were trying to do. Coming to America at that time and seeing a bank of that stature showed the people, and put faith in the people, that this country was going to work. That is exactly what these two buildings did at the time.
To this day buildings still show power in a country. Tall skyscrapers blanket our cities skyline to...