Opened on October 25, 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia was the largest public building project of its' time. The wheel shaped structure was designed to primarily keep inmates isolated from each other as well as the outside world, the belief being that this would be beneficial to their spiritual rehabilitation. Economic reasons as well as overcrowding eventually led to the prison closing in 1971. Today, Eastern State's massive walls provide tourists with their own original form of deteriorating beauty as a result of being abandoned for many years.
Thru the years, Eastern State housed such famous criminals as Willie "The Actor" Sutton, and Alphonse "Scarface" Capone, and was also the setting for many television shows as well as Hollywood movies. In order to safely protect visitors from its' ongoing decay, the penitentiary is currently maintained in a state of 'preserved ruin'.
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