Eastern Penitentiary.
There are two bridges across the Schuylkill, both of which are substantial and elegant structures. The Fair Mount bridge consists of a singlearch, of three hundred and forty feet in length. The whole length of that on Market street, is one thousand three hundred feet, including abutments and wing walls.
Upper Ferry Bridge.
The public markets form a very striking feature of the city. One is nearly two thirds of a mile in extent. The harbor of Philadelphia possesses many natural advantages, though it is more liable to be impeded by ice than either that of New York or Baltimore. The Delaware is not navigable for the first class of ships of the line. For the amount of its commerce, Philadelphia is the fourth city in the United States.
By the will of the late Stephen Girard, Philadelphia received large bequests of land and money, to be appropriated to purposes of public improvement. To the Pennsylvania Hospital he gave thirty thousand dollars; to the city, for city improvements, five hundred thousand dollars; for a college for poor white male children, and its endowments, two millions. He made further donations to the city of unimproved lands in the western territories, and stock in the Schuylkill navigation company, valued at the sum of six hundred thousand dollars.
By the census of 1810, the population of Philadelphia was ninety-six thousand six hundred and sixty-four; in 1840 it was two hundred and thirty-five thousand.
Pittsburg, a city and capital of Alleghany county, Pennsylvania, two hundred and ninety-seven miles west by north of Philadelphia, is situated on a beautiful plain at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers. It is built on the old site of the famous fort Du Quesne, whose ruins are still seen in the neighborhood. The situation of Pittsburg is as advantageous as can well be imagined; it is the key to the western country, and, excepting New Orleans and Cincinnati, is the first town of the whole valley of the Mississippi. It was created a city by the legislature of Pennsylvania, at the session of 1816. The principal cause which has contributed, after its fine position, to ensure the prosperity of, Pittsburg, is the exhaustless mass of mineral coal that exists in its neighborhood.The beds are 340 feet above low water level, and about two hundred and ninety above the level of the town. The great abundance of this valuable material has converted Pittsburg into a vast workshop, and a warehouse for the immense country below, upon the Ohio and the other large rivers of the valley. According to a list recently published in one of the Pittsburg papers, there are in operation in that city, and in its immediate vicinity, eighty-nine steam engines, on which there are two thousand one hundred and eleven hands employed, and coal consumed to the amount of one hundred and fifty-four thousand two hundred and fifty bushels per month. The great use of this coal has given a general dinginess of appearance to the town, arising from the smoke. The inhabitants of Pittsburg present specimens of almost every nation; they are distinguished for economy and industry. The Western university was established here in 1820. Among the buildings are three or four banks, a small theatre, a public library, and houses of worship for various sects. Population, twenty-one thousand two hundred and ninety-six.
Pittsfield, a town of Berkshire county, Massachusetts, situated on a hill at the junction of the principal branches of the Housatonic river. It contains a bank, an academy, a medical institution, and several extensive manufactories, among which is one of muskets, where arms have been frequently made for the United States. Population, four thousand and sixty.
Plattsburg, capital of Clinton county, New York, situated on a fine bay on the west side of lake Champlain, is handsomely laid out and contains a bank and several manufactories. It is celebrated in the history of the late war with Great Britain. Population, 6,416.