Great Cities of the United States: Historical, Descriptive, Commercial, IndustrialSouthworth, Gertrude Van Duyn
History
Great Cities of the United States: Historical, Descriptive, Commercial, Industrial
Southworth, Gertrude Van Duyn
Cities and towns -- United States; United States -- Description and travel
In 1683 Penn laid out in large squares, between the Delaware and
Schuylkill rivers, the beginning of a great city. This city he called
Philadelphia, a word which means "brotherly love." At that time the
so-called city had an area of 2 square miles and a population of only
400. To-day Philadelphia has an area of nearly 130 square miles and a
population of more than a million and a half. It is America's third city
in population, and it ranks third among the manufacturing cities of the
United States. Philadelphia is on the Delaware River, a hundred miles
from the ocean, but it has all the advantages of a seaport, for the river
is deep enough to let great ocean steamers navigate to the city's docks.
Philadelphia's easy access to the vast stores of iron, coal, and
petroleum, for which Pennsylvania is famous, its location on two
tidewater rivers,--the Delaware and the Schuylkill,--and its important
railroads, all have helped to make it a great industrial and commercial
center. One half of the anthracite coal in the United States is mined in
Pennsylvania. Much of it is shipped to Philadelphia and from there by
rail and water to many other states and countries.
[Illustration: THE OLD STAGE WHICH JOURNEYED FROM PHILADELPHIA TO
PITTSBURGH]
Some of the greatest manufacturing plants in the United States, in fact
in the world, are in Philadelphia. In certain branches of the textile, or
woven-goods, industry Philadelphia is unsurpassed. In the making of
woolen carpets she leads the world. This industry goes back to
Revolutionary times, when the first yard of carpet woven in the United
States came from a Philadelphia loom. In 1791 a local manufacturer made a
carpet, adorned with patriotic emblems, for the United States Senate.
Other important industries of the city include the manufacturing of
woolen and worsted goods, hosiery and knit goods, rugs, cotton goods,
felt hats, silk goods, cordage, and twine and the dyeing and finishing of
textiles. The largest lace mill in the world is in Philadelphia.
[Illustration: OLD IRONSIDES]
Philadelphia is also noted for the manufacture of iron and steel. The
largest single manufactory in Philadelphia is the Baldwin Locomotive
Works, which is the greatest of its kind. Pictures of the old Flying
Machine, a stagecoach which made trips to New York in 1776, and of Old
Ironsides, the first locomotive built by Matthias W. Baldwin in 1832,
seem very queer in comparison with the powerful 300-ton locomotives built
in Philadelphia to-day. Old Ironsides weighed a little over 4 tons and
lacked power to pull a loaded train on wet and slippery rails; hence the
following notice which appeared in the newspapers: "The locomotive engine
built by Mr. M. W. Baldwin of this city will depart daily when the
weather is fair with a train of passenger cars. On rainy days horses will
be attached."
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