Her growth will be rapidly accelerated by the extension of her railroads. Besides her coal roads, she will soon be practically the connecting point of certainly two, and perhaps three, transcontinental railroad lines. She now has railroad connection with the Northern Pacific, and will shortly be connected with the Canadian Pacific by the West Coast road. But the road that will do most for Seattle, indeed, the road which of itself would make a city at its Sound terminus, is the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad. This will be true if the road never crosses the limits of Washington Territory; but no doubt it will ultimately cross the continent, or at least have close transcontinental connections. When these roads are thus extended, they will bring vast quantities of lumber, and of mineral and agricultural products, and carry in exchange foreign and domestic products for the supply of the rural and mining population, to say nothing of the great Eastern trade. Her coastwise and foreign trade have already been discussed. [Sidenote: The chief ship-building centre.] Puget Sound must also become the chief ship-building centre of the continent, and the possession by Seattle of the great fresh-water lakes so close to the Sound, and the fact that here will be the point where the Bessemer pig-iron and its products will be manufactured, will give this point advantage over all others on the Sound. Seattle will build ships for England, New England, South America, Asia, and the Islands of the Ocean; and just here will first be seen the dawning of the new day which will come to our American merchant marine, of late so depressed. And the Government itself must sooner or later establish on Lake Washington a navy-yard where ships can be built of the best material at minimum cost; and where her ships out of commission can lie landlocked, secure from the teredo and the corroding effects of sea-water, and can at once get rid of their barnacles. [Sidenote: Seattle better located than San Francisco.] Seattle can have no rival on the Pacific Coast except San Francisco, which has the only good harbor and entrance outside of Puget Sound, but which has no coal, nor iron, nor timber, and whose back-country does not equal the Snoqualmie valley of East Washington for agricultural and mineral capabilities. THE TERMINAL PROPERTY OF THE SEATTLE, LAKE SHORE AND EASTERN RAILROAD. [Sidenote: Unrivalled terminal property.] The city and suburban property which the railroad has secured is singularly valuable, and will afford every facility for city and foreign business. It is correctly described in the documents of the company. No future road can acquire such facilities. They approach a monopoly of great value. SUBURBAN INTERESTS. [Sidenote: But two entrances by land.] [Sidenote: Superiority of the northern suburbs.]