There are several fine parks connected, together with the lakes, by a system of boulevards. Fort Lawton, a military post, is within the city limits.
The harbor, which is in Lake Washington and is four miles long and two miles wide, admits the largest vessels at all times. As the terminal of two transcontinental railroads and as an oceanic seaport, Seattle has extraordinary commercial advantages. It has direct steamship lines to Japan, China, the Philippines, and to Honolulu, and is also connected with European and South American ports. It is the chief outfitting port for the Yukon and Alaskan gold fields, and the chief trading center for the numerous ports on the extensive coast-line of Puget Sound. It has abundant electric power generated by falls in the rivers of the Cascades at a very low cost. Snoqualnite Falls, nineteen miles distant, are one hundred and twenty-six feet higher than Niagara, and supply an immense power.
Seattle largely owes its phenomenal growth to the lumber trade. The manufactures include beside, flour, iron and steel products, boots and shoes, beer, etc. Other industries are bridge-works, shipyards, meat-packing, and fish-canning. The city has also smelting and refining works, and a United States assay office. The chief exports are lumber, coal, meats, fruits, wheat, and hops.
Seattle was first settled in 1852. The place was laid out in 1853 and was incorporated in 1865 as a town and in 1880 as a city. In 1889 it was almost wiped out by fire, but one business building escaping destruction. From June 1 to November 30, 1909, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was held here, the average daily attendance being twenty-eight thousand. In the spring of 1910 a Municipal Plans Commission of twenty-one members was created by an amendment to the city charter of Seattle, and in 1911 their report was issued containing sketches and plans illustrating their proposals for the beautification and future growth of the city.
St. Louis (sānt lōō´ĭs or lōō´ĭ), Mo. [Named in honor of Louis XV. of France; the name originally applied to a depot established at this point February 15, 1764, by Pierre Láclede Liguest.]
It is the principal city of Missouri, and is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, twenty-one miles south of the mouth of the Missouri River, and by rail one thousand one hundred and eight miles southwest of New York, two thousand four hundred and thirty-four miles east of San Francisco, and six hundred and ninety-six miles north of New Orleans. It has a frontage of nearly twenty miles on the river and rises from it in three terraces, the third of which is about two hundred feet above the river level.
The city is regularly laid out, on the Philadelphia plan, Market Street running east and west, being the dividing line between north and south. The streets running north and south are numbered, though many of them are also known by names. Broadway or Fifth Street is the chief shopping thoroughfare, while other important business streets are Fourth Street, Olive Street, Washington Avenue, Third Street, and First Street (or Main) and Second Streets. The city is also divided into a north and south section by the valley of Mill Creek (now filled in), which is spanned by seven bridges. The city has recently extended greatly to the west, and commerce is steadily encroaching on the residential quarters.
The Court House, in Broadway, between Market and Chestnut Streets, is a substantial building in the form of a Greek Cross. It is surmounted by a dome, one hundred and seventy-five feet high, the gallery of which commands an excellent view of the city and river. A little to the east, in Third Street, corner of Chestnut Street, is the Merchants’ Exchange, the main hall of which, with a painted ceiling, is two hundred and twenty feet long. The grand ball of the Veiled Prophet is held here. The Cotton Exchange is at the corner of Main and Walnut Streets.
By following Market Street to the west from the Court House, the square, named Washington Park, is reached, and also the City Hall. A little to the south, in the square enclosed by Clark Avenue and Spruce, Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, are the so-called Four Courts, built on the model of the Louvre, in Paris, with a large semi-circular jail at the back. A little to the north of the City Hall runs the busy Olive Street, which toward Broadway, passes the Post Office on the left. Among the numerous substantial business buildings in this part of Olive Street are the Star, Century, Frisco, Chemical, Missouri Trust, Commercial, Laclede, Commonwealth Trust, National Bank of Commerce, and Third National Bank, a large and very fine structure. In Broadway, at the corner of Locust Street, is the Mercantile Library, which contains one hundred and fifty thousand volumes, statues by Harriet Hosmer, and others.
Other important buildings in this business section of the city are the Security Building (at the southwest corner of Fourth and Locust Streets); the Mercantile Trust Co., at the northeast corner of Eighth and Locust Streets (with vaults closed by a circular steel door of marvelous mechanism weighing four and one-half tons); the St. Louis Union Trust Co., at the northwest corner of Fourth and Locust Streets; the Mercantile Club, southeast corner of Seventh and Locust Streets; the Public Library, Locust Street, corner of Ninth Street; the Lincoln Trust and Wainwright Buildings, corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets; and the Missouri Pacific Building, northwest corner of Market and Seventh Streets.