The interests of education are well looked after in the half-dozen public school buildings; and the religious element has abundant spiritual food dispensed from the full score of costly and well-ordered church edifices, some of which contribute much to the architectural grace and ornament of the town.
A notable feature in the landscape, as the city is approached by either railroad or river, is the wooden bridge spanning the river just at the steamboat landing. It is over a fourth of a mile in length, and built upon an inclined plane, at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The first abutment on the side of the city starts on a level with the bluff, giving seventy-five feet between the bridge and the river, and then falls rapidly away, supported by nine stone piers, to the low flat land on the opposite shore. This is used as a carriage road, and connects St. Paul with all the adjacent country on the opposite side of the river. A half-mile beyond this bridge, the companion bluff to that on which the city stands begins, rising to an equal height with it. These bluffs, however, it should be stated, are not of such imposing appearance as are those on the river below, and concerning which we have written in a preceding chapter. They seem to gradually lessen in height from four and five hundred feet at Lake Pepin, where the greatest altitude occurs, to about one-third of that here at St. Paul.
The city's supply of water is fine, and at all times abundant; a lake back of the town being the natural reservoir of this supply. What has been to many towns a great labor and burden, has here required but a trifling expense.
Hotels are usually the traveller's thermometer by which he judges the culture, beauty, and general characteristics of the town. It is quite singular that people remember a town either with delight or disgust, just in proportion as the entertainment furnished at their hotel is good or bad, but there is more of truth in this than any of us would care at first to acknowledge. The good people of St. Paul have, however, nothing to fear in this respect. There are several fine establishments, chief of which is the "Metropolitan," and then the "Park Place," with its cool and ample verandahs, inviting travellers to repose and rest.
The question of a Public Park is being agitated, and with every hope that it will be carried to successful results. But little attention has been given this matter by any of our cities until a very recent period; and now their beauty and utility having been established, many towns are moving in this most important matter. St. Paul can afford to issue bonds liberally to this end; and should the district under consideration be secured, including the beautiful Lake Como, little elaboration will suffice to make it immediately a notable feature of the town.
The strata of blue limestone near the surface, and on which the city practically stands, is of great value, and quarries can be opened anywhere, from which good building material in unlimited quantities can be had at small cost; easily competing with lumber in the market, which is likewise plentiful, as we shall see when we come to look into the history and growth of the sister city on the river, above.
This stone already constitutes the chief material used in the erection of all the better class of buildings in the city, and, indeed, Third Street, the principal business thoroughfare, has even now little else than this honest and solid-looking material to represent it.
The sandstone underlying the magnesian limestone, and which is so soft as to be easily crushed, could be used we judge in the manufacture of glassware at great profit to the manufacturer; but as yet, there is nothing done that we know, and it is not strange when we reflect that it is but a score of years since St. Paul was really occupied and settled. All of this various strata of rock and sand belongs, geologically speaking, to what is known as the lower silurian system, extending from near the western shores of Lake Michigan, and sweeping over all the lower half of Minnesota, westward and upward along the valley of the great Red and Assinniboin Rivers to the north, marking one of the most prolific grain growing belts on the continent, if not in the world. While this limestone underlying the surface is valuable for the purposes heretofore named, it performs a still greater service to mankind in having contributed much of those qualities which have given in certain departments of agriculture, highest prominence to the State.
St. Paul is both the political and commercial capital of Minnesota, and must always remain such without doubt, though it does not occupy a central geographical position, still it is the practical centre of the commonwealth, made such by the enterprise of her people in extending the system of railways in all directions, with this point as a pivotal centre. There are already seven important roads[A] radiating from this city, either completed or in rapid course of construction, giving at the present time a total of about seven hundred miles of finished road, over which daily or more trains run, and all within the boundaries of the State. Other lines beginning and ending elsewhere, yet likewise in the State, are not included, of course, in this consideration. These roads penetrate already, or will when completed, the principal centres of trade and agriculture lying in the Northwest.
Daily communication is already had by rail with the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, and Duluth, and in the near future another, and, perhaps, in some respects; the most important link of all, that connecting St. Paul with Omaha and the Union Pacific Railway, known as the St. Paul and Sioux City Road. This line traverses the most fertile district in the State, as well as the most populous, following up the rich valley of the Minnesota to Mankato, where it leaves the river, holding a southwest direction for Sioux City in Iowa. The road is now completed as far as Madelia, one hundred and twelve miles from St. Paul, leaving a gap of about one hundred and fifty miles to be finished in order to make the proposed connection with the great central trunk road to the Pacific coast. We do not think that there is a single township of poor land along its entire route. On the other hand, speaking from personal observation, we know that the land is uniformly above the average in fertility, productiveness, and beauty.