COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF TACOMA.
Many advantages are possessed by Tacoma which can not fail to result in building up here a large commercial city. A very large wholesale business is already established in many important lines of trade, and some of the largest and most complete retail stores to be found on the Pacific coast are located here. As an index of the condition of trade here the banking statistics are valuable. There are four national banks, one large private bank and a savings bank. The combined capital stock of these institutions is $630,000. The four national banks have $1,930,000 deposits, $1,892,000 discounts and $120,000 surplus and undivided profits. Such a showing of banking business indicates a volume of trade of large proportions, and as deposits have nearly doubled during the past year, the growth of trade is certainly remarkable. Tacoma’s position as the terminus of a great overland railway, as well as the terminal port on Puget sound for all local and ocean steamer lines, is one that assures it an enormous jobbing trade throughout the entire northwest. As a port of shipment for the coal, lumber, grain, iron, minerals and manufactured and agricultural products of an immense region, it must necessarily be the chief commercial point of the same section, and this is the cause of the marvelous increase in business during the first year after the completion of the railroad across the mountains. Foreign commerce already seeks this port for entrance into the United States. The sails of a clipper ship from China and Japan is a common sight in the harbor, and will be more frequent in the future. A line of steamers connecting the Northern Pacific with the ports of China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand is one of the certainties of a not distant future. Having the advantage over San Francisco of a much shorter route to China, Tacoma, as the chief port on Puget sound, can not fail to be a formidable rival to that city for the Oriental trade.
ALLEN C. MASON.
E. PIERCE. FARRELL & DARMER, ARCH.
TACOMA’S BEAUTIFUL HOMES.
WATER FRONT AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS.
Between the harbor of Tacoma as it was in 1880 and as it is to-day there is as strong a contrast as between a wilderness and a walled city, and yet the harbor of the city of ten years hence will present a still stronger contrast. Along the western shore of Commencement bay run the numerous tracks of the Northern Pacific, along which have been erected most costly wharfs, warehouses, docks, coal bunkers and numerous other commercial facilities. Saw mills have multiplied and other factories are being located. On the opposite page is given an engraving of a portion of the water front, showing coal bunkers, saw mill and other features. Between the row of piles on the right of the foreground and the city, which lies to the left, is the channel of Puyallup river, not accessible to vessels at low tide. Here most extensive improvements have been planned, consisting of dredging the channel and constructing deep water docks along both sides of it. An immense area of mud flats lies back of the row of piling mentioned, which will be cut off from water by this work, and rendered available for commercial purposes. Here will be located factories, warehouses and wholesale stores of the future city. A mammoth saw mill is already being constructed on the flats. By this means large additions will be made to the water front, already six miles in length, and the docks and channel will pierce the heart of the city. Objection has sometimes been made to the fact that the harbor is so deep that vessels can not anchor near the docks. There is good holding ground farther out in the bay, and the docking facilities being provided will remove any possible objection. In its harbor Tacoma has all that is required by the largest city in the world.