TACOMA’S ocean commerce exceeds in magnitude and value that of every other port on the Pacific Coast with the exception of San Francisco. President James J. Hill, of the Great Northern Railway, explained the fact with the epigrammatic remark: “TACOMA has the facilities.” TACOMA possesses one of the finest harbors in the world and has the most extensive wharves and warehouses for handling ocean traffic on the Pacific Coast. [Illustration: City Waterway from Eleventh Street Bridge.] TACOMA handles the largest share of the foreign trade of the North Pacific Coast, the chief ports of which are TACOMA, Portland and Seattle. The imports and exports of these three ports for ten years from July 1, 1894, to June 30, 1904, inclusive, as shown by the official customs reports, were valued as follows: Tacoma $121,652,289 Portland 105,590,572 Seattle 84,911,055 TACOMA is the leading port of the Puget Sound customs district, the headquarters of which are at Port Townsend, and which includes TACOMA, Seattle and fourteen other ports. Of the total foreign commerce of the Puget Sound district, TACOMA handles more than 50 per cent., Seattle less than 30 per cent., and the balance is distributed between fourteen other ports in the district. The following are the official figures showing the imports, exports and total foreign commerce of TACOMA, Seattle, and the Puget Sound district for the first six months of 1904: Total Foreign Imports. Exports. Commerce. Tacoma $2,835,712 $5,573,867 $8,409,579 Seattle 1,493,455 3,071,911 4,565,366 Minor ports 869,176 2,633,465 3,502,641 ---------- ----------- ----------- Puget S’d Dist. $5,198,343 $11,279,243 $16,477,586 In ten years from 1894 to 1903, inclusive, the Puget Sound customs district, of which TACOMA is the chief port, rose from twenty-first to ninth in the magnitude of its foreign commerce among the customs districts of the United States. For the year ending June 30, 1903, Puget Sound was the sixth district in the United States in the tonnage of American and foreign vessels entered and cleared in the foreign trade. The leading customs districts, in the order of their rank in tonnage entered and cleared, are New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Baltimore, PUGET SOUND, San Francisco, Galveston, Portland (Maine), and Pensacola.