The Liberty Bell. Independence Hall. The Betsy Ross House. Whether or not you're native to the Philadelphia area, you're likely to know the history behind the famous attractions that help put Philly on the map. But what about the history behind our city's most iconic edible attraction? We're talking about the cheesesteak, of course, a sandwich that's just as synonymous with the City of Brotherly Love as Philly's historical attractions—despite arriving on the scene centuries later.

So how did the cheesesteak manage to become so ingrained in Philly's pop culture? Let's take a trip back in time to the 1930s, shall we? The story goes that during this decade, Pat Olivieri, a street food vendor stationed in Philly's Italian Market, made a living by selling hot dogs. One day, Olivieri decided to switch things up a bit by making himself a lunch of chopped beef in an Italian roll, reports Visit Philadelphia, Philly's official tourism website. A hungry cab driver, who happened to be cruising by at just the right moment to catch a whiff of the beef sizzling on Olivieri's grill, wanted to taste the new creation for himself. News of the tasty concoction spread like wildfire among Olivieri's regular client base of cab drivers, and the steak sandwich was born.

Still, the cheesesteak as we know it wasn't invented until the next decade, some years after Olivieri had gone on to found the now-legendary Pat's King of Steaks, a 24/7 business still in operation at 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in South Philly.

One of Olivieri's employees, restaurant manager Joe Lorenza, is credited for being the first to add cheese to the sandwich during the 1940s. However, it was another 20-some years before Cheez Whiz, provolone cheese and American cheese became standard accompaniments on the Pat's King of Steaks menu. 

Throwing a curveball to the history of the Philly cheesesteak is Geno's Steaks, a 24/7 cheestesteak operation that was founded in 1966. Geno's founder, Joey Vento, claims it was his business, not Olivieri's, that first added cheese to the cheesesteak. The Pat's vs. Geno's rivalry has been ablaze ever since—a friendly competition that's intensified by the fact that the restaurants are located directly across the street from each other.