I'm currently reading David McCullough's John Adams biography, and in it he talks about Philadelphia being the largest city in the colonies. After some Googling, I found out that Philly had around 40,000 people living in it, with New York having 25,000 people in 1776. Now today, Philadelphia has 1.568 million people, and New York has 8.538 people. My question is, why did New York outpace Philadelphia so much?
New York's port and amazing waterways are mostly to thank.
New York Harbor is massive and deep. Plus the narrow opening to the port formed by Staten Island and Brooklyn made it a nice area strategically. The Hudson River is also fairly wide and deep so if could handle more/larger ships. With the creation of the Erie Canal, New York was also able to trade with the interior of the country as well as Europe.
Philadelphia on the other hand didn't have as much going for it. The Delaware River was comparatively shallow and it was easier for the river to freeze over during the winter months.