Walk through downtown Wilmington and you'll pass brass plaques marking the registered addresses of corporations you recognize: banks, tech giants, pharmaceutical companies, retailers. They're not physically here - perhaps a small office, perhaps just a mailbox - but legally, Wilmington is home. The Court of Chancery, Delaware's business court, handles corporate disputes with speed and expertise that general courts can't match; its decisions shape corporate law nationally. The Delaware Division of Corporations processes hundreds of thousands of filings annually. For Wilmington, this means white-collar employment in law firms, banks, and corporate services - and a tax base that funds public services far beyond what the city's 70,000 residents might otherwise support.

The du Pont family arrived in Delaware in 1802, refugees from revolutionary France who built a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine Creek. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company became the world's largest chemical company; the family became Delaware's wealthiest and most influential. Their legacy sprawls across the Brandywine Valley: Winterthur, a 175-room mansion housing the nation's finest collection of early American decorative arts; Longwood Gardens, Pierre du Pont's 1,000-acre horticultural showcase with its famous fountains; Hagley Museum, preserving the original powder mills and family estates. The Brandywine River Museum displays three generations of Wyeth family paintings in a converted mill. Du Pont wealth built the region; du Pont preservation saved it from suburban sprawl.

Wilmington's Christina River waterfront was industrial wasteland until the 1990s, when redevelopment transformed abandoned shipyards into an entertainment district. The Chase Center hosts concerts and events; outlet shops and restaurants line the river walk; minor league baseball's Wilmington Blue Rocks play at Frawley Stadium. The Frank Furness Railroad District preserves the Victorian station architecture of the Reading Railroad era. Trolley Square, a neighborhood of rowhouses once served by streetcars, has become a dining and nightlife destination. Downtown's Rodney Square honors Caesar Rodney, Delaware's dramatic horseback ride to Philadelphia to cast the deciding vote for independence.

Joe Biden lived in the Wilmington suburbs throughout his political career, commuting daily to Washington on Amtrak. The train ride became central to his biography - the Senator who went home every night, who knew the conductors by name, who kept his family life separate from the capital's social scene. After his 2020 election, Biden gave his victory speech in Wilmington; the city became the transition headquarters. The Amtrak station was renamed the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station in 2011. Biden's Wilmington home, in the Greenville suburb, appears regularly in news coverage; local restaurants and businesses have found themselves unexpectedly famous.

Wilmington sits at the junction of I-95 and I-495, 30 minutes south of Philadelphia, 90 minutes from both New York and Washington. Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) serves most visitors; Amtrak's Northeast Corridor stops frequently at Biden Station. The city anchors Delaware's narrow northern neck, where the state squeezes between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Tax-free shopping draws visitors from neighboring states. From altitude, Wilmington appears as development along the Christina and Brandywine rivers - smaller than it seems given its corporate importance, the du Pont estates visible as green spaces to the north, Philadelphia's skyline visible on the horizon. What appears from the air as a modest Northeast city is where American corporate law is made and where half the Fortune 500 maintains its legal residence.