MILWAUKEE, the largest city of Wisconsin, U.S.A., and the 12th in size in the United States (1930), on Lake Michigan, 85m. N. of Chicago; a port of entry and the county seat of Mil waukee county. It is on Federal highways 16, 18, 41 and 141 ; has , municipal and commercial airports ; and is served by the Chicago and North Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee, the Grand Trunk, the Pere Marquette, and the Soo Line railways, numerous motor coach and truck lines, and 9 lake steamship lines. Pop. (1930) (109,383 foreign-born, of whom 40,787 were from Ger many and 19,593 from Poland) ; in 1935 it was estimated at 610, 000.
The city has an area of 41 sq.m. ; an altitude of 58oft., rising to a height of 75 to 125ft. above the level of the lake. Three rivers cut it into natural divisions, known as the east, the west and the south sides. The Milwaukee river, entering from the north, is joined half a mile from its mouth by the Menominee, flowing from the west, and nearer the lake by the Kinnickinnic, from the south, and empties into Milwaukee bay, about 6m. wide. The rivers are navigable for lake traffic into the heart of the city. A large part of the lake front is owned by the city, and developed in parks, airport and harbour facilities. The Court of Honor (dedi cated to those who have taken part in the wars of America) is a broad parked space extending for three blocks on Wisconsin avenue, past the public library and museum, several fine churches, and other important buildings. In the heart of the city is the vast municipal auditorium, comprising 8 halls (seating from 30o to 8,000) under one roof, and providing over 95,000 sq.ft. of exhi bition space. The 4o hotels have 5,500 guest-rooms, and the office buildings, department stores, and other business structures are for the most part large and of modern type. The park system covers 1,292ac. and includes provision for all the popular games and recreations. Additional playgrounds are maintained by the school board. Under the forestry division of the park department, the systematic planting of shade trees and shrubs in the city streets is carried on, and existing trees are pruned, sprayed, moved when necessary, and removed when dead or diseased. In the first ten years after the creation (1918) of this service, 25,00o new trees were planted.
State normal school (established 1880) ; Milwaukee-Downer col lege for women (formed in 1895 by the consolidation of Mil waukee college and Downer college, a Baptist institution estab lished at Fox Lake in 1855) ; Marquette university (Roman Catho lic ; 1881) which has one of the largest dental schools in the country ; the Milwaukee School of Engineering (1905) ; the Wis consin Workshop for the Blind; the Wisconsin Industrial School for Girls ; Mount Mary college (1932) ; and numerous private schools and charitable institutions under religious auspices. Just west of the city is a group of county institutions for the care of the aged, infirm, insane and dependent. The privately supported philanthropic agencies of the city, which raise their funds in a joint annual campaign, secured $855,566 in 1935. Seven daily papers are published in the city, including one German and two Polish. The general death rate (8.16) and the infant mortality (45.3) are low Government.—The city operates under a charter of 1874, providing for a municipal form of government with a mayor and board of aldermen elected every four years. Since 1917 Daniel W. Hoan, a Socialist, has been mayor. The water supply is taken from Lake Michigan, at a point 5m. from the harbour. The two pumping stations have a capacity of 219,00o,000gal. in 24 hours, about three times the daily average consumption. The cost of the water works ($16,000,000) has been paid out of earnings of the department. In 1925 a sewage disposal system was completed at a cost of $8,5oo,000. It is based on the activated sludge process, by which fertilizer material of commercial value is produced, cov ering about two-thirds of the operating expense. Daily treatments in 1935 reached 85,610,00o gallons and approximately half of the metropolitan area of 96,168 acres was sewered. The city's assessed valuation of property for 1936 was $852,174,165. A comprehen sive city plan was prepared in 1917 but has not been adopted. Zoning ordinances were enacted in 1920 and Commerce and Manufactures.—Milwaukee is the commer cial metropolis of the State, and ranked 1 oth in 1935 among the cities of the United States in the value of its manufactured prod ucts. Its fine harbour, open throughout the year and accessible to the largest craft on the lakes, is the most important gateway to the North-west for traffic across Lake Michigan. The water-borne commerce amounted in 1935 to 5,838,583 tons, valued at $270, 752,800, of which entire total 56% (in value) was car-ferry traffic, and the rest general vessel cargo, largely coal and grain. Milwaukee is one of the great grain ports of the Great Lakes and one of the largest distributing centres for coal in the country. Its commerce is domestic for the most part. Exports to foreign coun tries were valued in 1935 at $397,600, and imports at $3,510,300. The aggregate jobbing and wholesale business, 1933, was 000. Bank debts in the year 1935 amounted to $2,760,000,000.