TACOMA is the youngest of the maritime cities of the United States. It is situated on one of the finest harbors in the world. It is the leading seaport of Puget Sound, the gateway to the Orient and Alaska. It is second only to San Francisco on the Pacific Coast in the volume and value of its foreign commerce. It is the chief Pacific Coast port for steamship lines maintaining regular sailings between TACOMA and Japan, Asiatic Russia, China and Manila; between TACOMA and London, Liverpool and Glasgow by way of the Orient, Suez Canal and the Mediterranean, the longest regular steamship route in the world; and between TACOMA and Hamburg, the chief seaport of Continental Europe, by way of Mexican, Central and South American ports. TACOMA is in direct, regular steamship communication with Alaska, San Francisco, Honolulu and New York. TACOMA is the western headquarters and chief Pacific Coast terminal of the Northern Pacific railway and the headquarters and western terminal of the Tacoma Eastern railroad, the most important independent railway in the State and the tourist route to Paradise Valley and Mount Tacoma. TACOMA handles the largest railway freight traffic of any city in the Pacific Northwest. It is the center and operating point of a system of city, suburban, and interurban electric railways, with 135 miles of track. It is the chief emporium, manufacturing and distributing point for the leading staple products of the forests, farms, mines and waters of the State of Washington and Alaska, and the “Inland Empire,” the valleys of the Upper Columbia and Snake Rivers in Eastern Washington and Idaho, between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains. It is the chief wheat exporting and flour milling city of the Pacific Coast. It is the first city of the Pacific Northwest in manufactures. It is the electric city of the Pacific Coast with natural power resources unequalled at any city in America except Niagara Falls. It is the “home City” of the North Pacific Coast, and possesses scenic attractions which evoked from Sir Henry Irving the declaration that TACOMA has the most beautiful situation and environment of all the cities he had visited in the world. It is an educational, literary, musical and social center, with several institutions of higher learning, a Public Library, a famous Museum, 800 acres of parks of surpassing beauty, broad streets, fine public and private buildings, theaters, hotels, churches, hospitals, charitable and benevolent institutions and a rapidly growing population of enterprising, prosperous and hospitable people. TACOMA’S ORIGIN AND NAME.