{"id":484686,"date":"2026-01-01T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/484686\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T12:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T12:12:09","slug":"the-first-ever-hydrogen-powered-balloon-in-america-took-off-on-walnut-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/484686\/","title":{"rendered":"The first ever hydrogen-powered balloon in America took off on Walnut Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a cold January morning in colonial Philadelphia. The year was 1793 and Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Adams, and George Washington were among dozens of spectators gathered in the Walnut Street Prison workyard. The Founding Fathers watched in awe as French aeronaut Jean-Pierre Blanchard prepared to take flight.<\/p>\n

Blanchard\u2019s hydrogen-powered balloon rose up into the sky. It was the first time someone had ever seen a balloon take off in America. <\/p>\n

Two and a half hours later, Blanchard landed the blue and yellow striped silk balloon 15 miles north in a Deptford, NJ field that today is a Walmart Supercenter parking lot. <\/p>\n

That historic moment \u2014 America\u2019s first balloon ride \u2014 will be remembered on Saturday at the Athen\u00e6um<\/a>, where the Walnut Street Prison workyard once stood. <\/p>\n

The festivities will kick off the Philadelphia Historic District\u2019s<\/a> 52 Weeks of Firsts<\/a>, a weekly day party marking events that happened in Philadelphia before anywhere else in America, and often the world. Each Saturday, the Historic District will partner with a local institution to host a free festival \u2014 or \u201cFirstival.\u201d This will be part of a yearlong celebration of America\u2019s 250th birthday.<\/p>\n

Each of those locations will feature a foam sculpture illustrated by a Mural Arts<\/a> of Philadelphia artist commemorating the historic event.<\/p>\n

Blanchard\u2019s historic balloon ride proves even back then, Philadelphia resonated greatly with Parisian culture<\/a>. <\/p>\n

While in Paris negotiating an end to the Revolutionary War<\/a> in 1783, America\u2019s A-list forefathers, Ben Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay witnessed some of the world\u2019s first balloon rides. Impressed, they came back to Philadelphia raving about the innovation. <\/p>\n

Two years later, Blanchard, and co-aeronaut John Jefferies, became the first people to sail over the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon. (He chose hydrogen because hot air balloons were powered by fire and prone to explosion, thereby making any flight more than three miles risky.) <\/p>\n

The English Channel trip made Blanchard a big deal in aeronautical circles and he started traveling around the world, flying balloons, and charging spectators, explained Beth Shalom Hessel, executive director of the Athen\u00e6um of Philadelphia<\/p>\n

On Jan. 3, 1793, Blanchard made his landmark 45th flight in Philadelphia, turning the Walnut Street Prison workyard into the birthplace of aeronautics in America.<\/p>\n

Onlookers paid $5 \u2014 more than $150 in today\u2019s money \u2014 to witness Blanchard take off. He carried with him a dog and a letter from Washington. This letter, which demanded that Blanchard be offered safe passage where ever he landed, is considered by many to be the first ever American passport.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a way of making money and drumming up interest in his balloon, Blanchard intentionally chose Philadelphia for his first American flight,\u201d Hessel said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s fascinating.\u201d <\/p>\n

This week\u2019s Firstival is Saturday, Jan. 3, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. at the Athen\u00e6um of Philadelphia, 219 S. 6th Street. The Inquirer will highlight a Philly \u201cfirst\u201d from the 52 Weeks of Firsts<\/a> program every week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a cold January morning in colonial Philadelphia. The year was 1793 and Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":484687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,219192,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-484686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-first-balloon-philadelphia-firstival-jean-pierre-blanchard","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}