MASON BLOCK—TACOMA.
TACOMA AS A MANUFACTURING CITY.
Whenever so young a city as Tacoma is mentioned it is generally spoken of as a prospective metropolis, whose present growth is based largely upon the future. Great as Tacoma’s future is sure to be, its present condition has not been reached by discounting it nor is its great prosperity due to large drafts on future industries. It has now many establishments which employ a large number of hands, pay many thousands of dollars to workmen monthly, and turn out a manufactured product valued at millions of dollars annually. One of these branches of industry is the saw mills and sash factories spoken of elsewhere, in which Tacoma is one of the leading cities of the world. Besides this there are a furniture factory, iron foundry, machine shops, flouring mills, car shops, and a number of smaller industries. The car shops of the Northern Pacific are located here, and give employment to a large number of hands. The huge reduction works being erected here, the flouring mills, and the gigantic iron smelting enterprise at Cle Elum, have been mentioned on other pages. The only coking ovens on the coast are located near the city and are owned by Tacoma parties. These enterprises are enough to account for the prosperous condition of the city, yet they are but an index of the manufacturing which will be done here in a few years. Situated in the midst of coal, iron, limestone, and hard and soft wood timber, all of unlimited quantity and superior quality; occupying the position of actual and operating terminus of a great transcontinental railroad, which renders tributary to it a vast empire producing cereals, stock, fruit, hops and other agricultural products in abundance, and is the outlet for a dozen of the richest mining districts in the west; and being already the largest shipping port on the greatest inland harbor on the Pacific coast, its future as a manufacturing city is assured beyond all question.
FARRELL & DARMER, ARCHITECTS
TACOMA.
MOUNT TACOMA, THE CASCADE MONARCH.
Rearing its great mass of snow and ice far above the surrounding mountains, Mt. Tacoma is the most commanding object in every Puget sound landscape, and is never seen to better advantage than from the streets of Tacoma. Its height is fourteen thousand four hundred and forty-four feet, exceeding that of any other of the numerous snow peaks of the Cascades, and in beauty of form and location it stands pre-eminent the monarch of the mountains. Captain George Vancouver, the discoverer and original explorer of Puget sound, in May, 1792, named this mountain “Rainier,” in honor of Rear Admiral Rainier, of the English navy, but the people of Puget sound, who can see no reason why the original and characteristic names given such objects by the aborigines should be changed, have discarded that title and restored the Indian name “Tacoma.” It is a beautiful name and most appropriate, meaning “near to heaven.” Ascents of the mountain are very frequently made by tourists, arrangements for which can be made in Tacoma. The view from its summit is grand beyond description, and the wild and rugged nature of its glaciers, gorges, canyons and rocky precipices give the mountain climber all the excitement he can reasonably desire. Mountain sheep and goats are hunted amid its glaciers by the venturesome sportsman, and the forests of the surrounding mountains are full of game that will try the nerve and skill of the most experienced hunter, no matter from what quarter of the globe he may come.