A substantial bridge has this year been erected by the city of TACOMA across the Puyallup River at a convenient point for access to the annexed lands from the manufacturing district which occupies the flats west of the Puyallup River. The federal government has made a complete survey of the harbor of TACOMA, the plans for the improvement of which contemplate the construction of a series of waterways extending from deep water in the bay a considerable distance to the south. The City Waterway, which is being dredged to a width of 550 feet and depths increasing as it approaches the bay from fifteen to thirty feet, under a contract awarded by the federal government in January, 1903, extends as far south as Twenty-third Street, or nearly twenty city blocks from the original harbor line. Miles of additional waterfront and wharves will thus be obtained at the head of the bay, exclusive of the natural shore line some ten miles in extent from Brown’s Point to Point Defiance. Railroads and steamships will have direct and immediate access to the very heart of this district. The acquisition and improvement by the construction of roads, bridges and waterways of 6,000 acres of land immediately adjacent to the city, make it possible for many more manufacturers to secure sites and utilize the limitless power resources of TACOMA, the great INDUSTRIAL CITY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. [Illustration: Loading Lumber at Tacoma Mill Company’s Wharf.] TACOMA is now the leading manufacturing city of Washington and the Pacific Northwest. The industrial development of the city since 1900 has been phenomenal. According to the federal census there were in 1900 381 manufacturing establishments at TACOMA, whose aggregate invested capital was $8,146,691, of which there were 385 proprietors and in whose employ there were 293 salaried officials and clerks and 4,347 wage-earners. Of this total number of wage-earners in manufacturing and mechanical industries at TACOMA, 4,104 were men, while only 243 were women or children under the age of 16 years. The total value of the products, including custom work and repairing, of the 381 establishments at TACOMA for the year preceding the taking of the census was $12,029,497. _MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED NEW MILLS AND FACTORIES HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE LIST OF TACOMA’S MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES DURING THE FOUR YEARS THAT HAVE ELAPSED SINCE THE FEDERAL CENSUS WAS TAKEN. THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF MORE THAN TWO NEW FACTORIES EVERY MONTH. MANY OF THE OLDER ESTABLISHMENTS HAVE DOUBLED OR TREBLED THEIR CAPACITY DURING THE SAME PERIOD._