Access to Raw Materials.

Another important factor in Tacoma’s industrial development, past, present and future, is its proximity and convenient access to the natural products or raw materials employed in manufacturing. Tacoma is the point at which the leading staple products of Washington are chiefly assembled for manufacture and distribution. The resources of “Wonderful Washington” are manifold. The products of the mines, the forests, the farms and ranches, and of the waters are of untold value to the world. Tacoma’s geographical position is such that she commands these products as does no other point in the pacific Northwest. The great Olympic Peninsula between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean is surrounded by water on three sides. Railroads are required to bring its products to tidewater, and Tacoma, at the head of ocean navigation on the Sound, is in closest proximity of all the Sound ports to this section rich in timber and mineral resources. South, southeast, east and northeast of Tacoma are equally rich sections of territory extending from the Sound on the north and west to the Columbia River on the south and to the ridge line of the Cascade Mountains on the east, whose treasures of agricultural, mineral and forest wealth must seek the markets of the world through this port. Tacoma is the natural and exclusive outlet for the products of this region. Six steam and four electric railway lines radiating from Tacoma, and numerous steamers plying between Tacoma and the island and mainland ports of the Sound afford transportation facilities for the traffic of the immediate and more remote regions tributary to the city. Across and beyond the mountain passes lie the Yakima Valley, the “Inland Empire,” and the greater domain of the United States whose products seeking trans-pacific markets pass through this natural gateway to the Orient.

Puget Sound is 300 miles nearer Japan, Manila and the Orient than San Francisco. It is 800 miles nearer Alaska than the Golden Gate. Ores for the Tacoma Smelter are brought by rail from Eastern Washington and by water from Alaska; from the islands along the coast of British North America; from British Columbia, Korea, Straits Settlements, Mexico and Central America. Foreign products brought across the pacific for manufacture in the United States, such as raw silk from China and Japan and hemp from Manila, are landed at Tacoma. The rail and water transportation facilities which unite at Tacoma, coupled with its command of raw materials and its wonderful resources of power and coal, make this city a most exceptionally favored point for manufacturing.

Homes of Tacoma Banks.