Under the dirigible, thousands of people gathered in town and boatloads of dignitaries filled the streets, including President Ulysses S. Grant's son, by then a general in his own right, but we were obsessed with the blimp. Obsessed. It was a front-page story for the entire week. The newspaper suggested that excitement over its arrival nearly caused a riot. Dozens of column inches were devoted to recreating, in minutiae, every dip and turn The Inquirer Airship made around City Hall.