They did this in Montreal. 27 independent municipalities on the island were forced to merge into the city of Montreal.
cities started merging in the 1830’s. Where i live was the 4th largest city in the US in 1830. Philadelphia was between the rivers and below Spring Garden and above South street. We where the Northern Liberties. One of William Penn’s original ideas to expand the state was to offer large rural tracts of land in the middle and northern areas of the state if you purchased a manufacturing size lot in the Northern Liberties. Many companies did this to access raw materials in the hinterlands of the state. Read about two people that really did “build this”, the Wurts Brothers who built the Delaware and Hudson Canal. link provided http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_and_Hudson_Canal Also road named pikes around philly were i believe all built private as well as some bridges and ferry’s. Some pikes here were private up until the 1930’s, Sorry Obama and all leftists, Government did not build most of the infrastructure in this country, ordinary or extraordinary people did. I wish Rush, Hannity and Levin would start to educate with this stuff.