Ensenada, the port of the made-to-order city of La Plata, more noteworthy for its university and museum than for its commercial affairs, has been constructed for the relief of Buenos Aires, and because, 35 miles lower down, the water naturally has greater depth. The port has 8000 feet of quays, warehouses, and other necessary appliances. Two American packing houses are here located.
Mar del Plata, the Newport of South America, 250 miles by rail south of Buenos Aires, is being developed also as a commercial port, with quays, warehouses, etc.
Bahia Blanca, with a population of 80,000 in the city and its several ports, is about 700 miles south of Buenos Aires. It is of such importance that the Southern Railway has four different routes for the journey. The city also has direct connection with Mendoza and with other parts of the country. Being situated on a large well protected bay of the ocean, it has a naturally better harbor than Buenos Aires and may be compared to Liverpool as Buenos Aires to London. Since 1882 its development has been rapid. With more than ordinary advantages for business for a city of its size, including factories, warehouses, and good hotels, it is a railway centre for lines spreading over the agricultural and stock-raising districts of southern Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, Mendoza, and San Juan, and is the natural port for these regions. Belgrano, said to belong to the Compagnie Française, is the real harbor of the city. Near is the port Ingeniero White with a T-shaped pier, accommodating 16 ships in 30 feet of water. Electrical elevators handle 6000 tons of grain in eight hours, while extensive shops and foundries are a part of the equipment. Puerto Galvan, 1¹⁄₄ miles west, belongs to the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway. Eight ocean steamers of 25-foot draft and one of 30 may be accommodated here. The basins and warehouses are of reinforced concrete; elevators with storage capacity of 18,000 tons and other facilities exist. Besides the commercial ports, Bahia Blanca has also the naval port of the Republic, 25 miles southwest of the city on the Southern Railway. The channel entrance is 25 feet deep at high tide; there are various quays, also a dry dock, 730 feet long and 33 deep; a new one of larger size is in preparation. Other facilities are provided, machinery, workshops, hospital, electric lighting, etc. There are various fortifications, strategic railway, telegraph, semaphores, and light-houses. Hotels for immigrants have been built in the city nearby for the benefit of those who will go to work in the south. Sanitary works, costing nearly $2,000,000, are to be installed.
Smaller Ports. A number of small ports on the ocean are served by the Mihanovich Line, formerly also by German lines, while various ocean steamers call at individual ports. Viedma on the Negro River is the chief port for the Rio Negro Province, with a fine harbor. San Antonio is on the same Gulf. On the large Gulf Nuevo are the ports Pirámides on the north side and Madryn on the south, the latter a small place, but with over-seas and coasting trade; a railway 45 miles long goes to Trelew, and to the capital of Chubut, Rawson. On Camerones Bay several British companies have large sheep ranches which many years ago counted 250,000 sheep, 2500 cattle, and 4000 horses.
Comodoro Rivadavia, the famous oil port, is on the Gulf of St. George, with Visser and other ports in the vicinity. Deseado is a small port with anchorage for ships six miles in. San Julian has a harbor with seven fathoms of water. Puerto Gallegos affords good anchorage ten miles up stream for ships of 10-20-foot draft. Sheep and cattle are near. This port, the capital of Santa Cruz, has weekly service to Punta Arenas. Santa Cruz, on a river of that name, is the most important town, with a fish cultural establishment. Ushuaiá receives monthly calls, the voyage from Buenos Aires occupying 45-50 days according to the number of calls en route.
Inland Transportation
The rivers of Argentina are of great importance for inland traffic, with many ports of local service for the export of grain and other products, and for varied imports; the chief towns so engaged deserve mention. On the Paraná River, the principal artery of river travel, excellent steamers run up to Corrientes, and on the Paraguay as far as Formosa and Asunción; larger ones go to Rosario only, a night journey of 240 miles, passing a number of small ports on the way.
Rosario’s importance as a commercial city is due to General Urquiza, who in 1859 made it a port of entry. Ocean steamers drawing 28 feet come to its docks. Situated in the great cereal section, as a grain port it now surpasses Buenos Aires. The city located in the Province of Santa Fé is on a bluff above the Paraná River, along which an expensive system of docks has been arranged, the new port extending over two miles with a minimum depth at the wharves of 25 feet. Separate wharves for ocean and for coasting steamers are provided, elevators, depots under the wharves for 30,000 tons of cereals, chutes from warehouses on the bank, all kinds of needed machinery, depots for general goods, flour mills, a sugar refinery, and railway connection with all of the different lines. Port extensions costing $3,000,000 include a sea wall 1640 feet long, warehouses, railway lines, and loading apparatus. The production of $75,000,000 worth of sugar is evidence of prosperity. In other parts of the city are factories of various kinds. Four railroads centering here afford direct communication with other Provinces. Of course the second city of Argentina has all the conveniences of a place of its size, population 317,000, in the way of fine buildings, hotels, clubs, parks, theatres, banks, etc.
Paraná, capital of Entre Rios, 310 miles from Buenos Aires on the east bank of the Paraná River, is the next considerable city; its port, Bajada Grande, a little below, has some local industries and trade in agricultural and pastoral products.
Santa Fé, capital of that Province, though far smaller and less commercial than Rosario, was founded before Buenos Aires by Juan de Garay, seven miles up the small stream Quiloaza, at a time when a quieter port for their small vessels seemed more desirable than the great river, which at Rosario is 20 miles wide. An important railway centre, its port is Colastiné, opposite to Paraná, and accessible to ocean steamers.