On a normal weekend in April, Philadelphia’s streets are usually full of people out shopping, grabbing food or just laying around in one of the city’s many parks.
But since nonessential businesses closed nearly a month ago, and Gov. Tom Wolf enacted a stay-at-home to force social distancing at the beginning of this month, one of the country’s biggest cities has been quiet.
A father-and-son team called 717 Drone Guys set out to capture what the nearly empty streets of Philadelphia looked like during the pandemic and shared the results on YouTube. Since the video was published Wednesday, it’s racked up nearly half a million views and has been shared widely on social media.
Dad Eric Wenger, whose day job is as a managing partner at accounting firm RKL’s Lancaster office, said he and his 14-year-old son captured this Philly footage on Sunday, April 4, using a Mavic 2 Pro drone.
“We have shot aerial footage in Philly on multiple occasions,” Wenger said. “It’s a beautiful city, especially from a bird’s eye view.”
Viewers can see shots of a nearly empty Ben Franklin Bridge, Dilworth Park, Penn’s Landing, Ben Franklin Parkway and Broad Street.
“We anticipated the scenes would look a lot different during quarantine, which clearly is the case,” Wenger said.
Great footage from @717Drone of Philly practicing social distancing. This is what we need to see. Keep it up— stay home & save lives. https://t.co/zPB3D13rPx
— Josh Shapiro (@JoshShapiroPA) April 9, 2020
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