This is a real point of discussion for people in the Philly area. (If not appropriate, mods please remove.) Located between NYC and DC and the cradle of our country, Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House, Benjamin Franklin, etc., would terrorist want to attack Philadelphia, PA?
Why bother? They already blew up the Vet.
Are you American? Alive? Vulnerable?
If the answer to all 3 is “yes”, you could be a target.
But there are varieties of vulnerability, Bosda. Don’t get carried away.
- American? Yes.
- Alive? Yes.
- Vulnerable? Yes.
- Located way the hell in the middle of nowhere? Yes.
Far less likely to be a target than Washington DC (where I used to live)? Yes.
the park service sure think philly is a target! they are making it extremely difficult to move around the independence mall area. oy!
i think philly would be a secondary target. nyc and dc would get struck first, as they did in 2001. then perhaps philly and boston. although boston was targeted first by the planes being hijacked from there and quite a few people from new england died in the planes.
if you are thinking big emotional impact tourist/historical targets i would think statue of liberty, independence mall, and wash mall. so perhaps the park service isn’t so far off.
or if they are a bit off on the targeting, philly is nicely situated between nyc and dc.
that’s why they call us the keystone state.
On 9/11, the first thing they closed in Philly was the Liberty Bell – makes sense. The second was Betsy Ross House.
Betsy Ross House!?!?!?!
And don’t forget the Law Firms in Philly…y’know, “Philadelphia Lawyers” and such.
Also, a plane or planes flying into the handfull of Center City skyscrapers would produce a crippling effect on our economy on par with that of WTC.
IANAT, but if you’re going to Philly, why not go to DC? That’s like going to Slidell to go drinking, when New Orleans is like an hour away.
There are at least 6 nuclear power plants and an unusually high number of chemical plants within hours of Philadelphia which seem far better targets than the Liberty Bell.
From the looks of Philadelphia, I thought they already had.
Well if they didn’t before, they do now that you’ve given them the idea. Good job, buddy.
Those things have symbolic significance to Americans, but nobody else.
Better to target things known worldwide: NYC, Washington, Hollywood, Disneyworld …
[slight hijack] My paranoid friend thinks the terrorists are going to attack the little pub he goes to in Speedway, Indiana. I guess it’s possible, but I think it’s highly unlikely. 
[/hijack]
Yeah, but they want to attack Americans, so hitting their symbols is certainly going to get the result they want. Also, the Liberty Bell is a bit lower profile than some of the monuments in DC, so it may not be as well protected.
Here in St. Louis, the Gateway Arch is considered to be a high-profile target. I’d think the Liberty Bell would be at least as high.
Besides, whoever thought someone would want to blow up a federal office building in downtown Oklahoma City?
Yes, absolutely. It’s at the top of their list. In fact, they’re coming after you specifically.
And they’ll be singing Elton John’s “Philadelphia Freedom” in a bitterly ironic tone of voice while they do it, too.
I’d think that blowing Philly up would have at least some symbolic value. Although any terrorists would be hunted down like dogs.
Robin, who lives entirely too close to Three Mile Island
Three Mile Island? Peach Bottom?
Pennsylvanians are quite capable of blowing themselves up, I think.
This thread made me chuckle, and I hope none of you will take what I have to say the wrong way.
I live on Capitol Hill in DC, and I remember having a conversation with some friends who live in NYC about how it seems that inhabitants of many mid-sized/less obvious cities have been trying very hard to come up with reasons why the terrorists would like to get them. Like they feel left out or something. Believe me, being a big bullseye is at best inconvenient and not at all enthralling.
I don’t know about you, but that would produce one HECK of a crippling effect on my economy. I work in one of those Center City skyscrapers.
Philly doesn’t have any major targets with easy approaches for exotic techniques – which is a complex way of saying, it ain’t easy to crash an airliner into the Liberty Bell.
Also, several companies have been moving out of the major skyscrapers for business reasons. The current reason is that new skyscrapers have big tax breaks for the businesses. There’s also the ongoing issues of Philly business taxes, dwindling population (especially college-educated young adults), stagnated government, etc.
The likely targets in this town would be, IMO, the Liberty Bell, Constitution Center, and Independence Hall (for historical value); the train station and the port (to disrupt commerce); and the sports complex (to kill many civilians at once – though with the low quality of most Philly teams, we don’t need any outside help).