By Water to the Columbian ExpositionWisthaler, Johanna Sara
History
By Water to the Columbian Exposition
Wisthaler, Johanna Sara
Great Lakes (North America) -- Description and travel; New York (State); World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)
Monumental Park, near the center of the city, contains ten acres, divided
into four squares by the extension of Ontario and Superior Streets.
Besides a fountain, and other attractive objects, the park is adorned by a
statue of Commodore Perry, erected in 1860 in commemoration of his victory
on Lake Erie in 1813. It is of Italian marble, eight feet high, and stands
upon a granite pedestal twelve feet in altitude. The most noteworthy
buildings are the postoffice, the city hall, the county court house, and
the Cleveland medical college. The Union Railway depot, an immense
structure of stone near the lake shore, is one of the largest of the kind
in the United States.
Cleveland was founded in 1796, and named in honor of General Moses
Cleveland of Connecticut, who then had charge of the surveying of this
region. It was an important point in the war of 1812, incorporated as a
village in 1814, and as a city in 1836. The number of its inhabitants is
estimated to be more than 200,000. The "Forest City" has an extensive
trade in copper and iron ore, shipped from the Lake Superior mining
regions, as well as in coal, petroleum, wool, and lumber, received by
railroad, canal, and lake transportation. A sojourn of at least one week
is requisite in order to acquaint one's self with all the attractions of
Cleveland, with its unrivaled position and manifold beauties of scenery.
In fact, our honorable President can be proud to share his name with this
delightful place; and, in return, the "Forest City" may consider it an
honor to be the namesake of Grover Cleveland, the present leader of the
powerful Republic.
On Friday morning, as soon as the dawning day dispatched its first rays
over Cleveland, we resumed our voyage on Lake Erie. The flakes of light
were falling every moment faster and broader among the spires and towers
of the city of which we gradually lost sight. They were only discernible
as long, gray shadows on the elevated lake shore. The mists were couched
in quiet masses, iridescent with the morning light, upon the breasts of
the remote hills, over whose leagues of massy undulations, they melted
into the robe of material light, fading, lost in the increasing lustre,
again to reappear in the higher heavens, while their bases vanished into
the unsubstantial and mocking blue of the lake below. The dispersing
wreaths of white clouds gradually gave place to the pale azure of the
horizon. The level of the beautiful inland-sea was bathed in the glorious
sunlight and the whole heaven--one scarlet canopy--colored the limpid
waters with an exquisite, roseate tint; thus giving a redoubled splendor
to this fine panorama.
While the midday sun was sending forth his warm rays, we came abreast of
Marblehead, and speeding along we reached Green Island at 1 o'clock.
Having passed Barr Point Lighthouse we chose our halting place on the
Canadian shore near _Amherstburg_, a small village pleasantly situated on
the Detroit River.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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