MOBILE, a city of south-western Alabama, U.S.A., at the head of Mobile bay on the Gulf of Mexico (3o m. long and 8 m. wide) ; county seat of Mobile county. It is on Federal high ways 45 and go; has a municipal airport; and is served by the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern, the Gulf, Mobile and Northern, the Louisville and Nashville, the Mobile and Ohio and the South ern railways, and by 4o ocean steamship lines and the barges of the Inland Waterways Corporation (Mississippi-Warrior Serv ice). Pop. (1920) 60,777 (39% negroes) ; and was 68,202 Federal census 1930, with an additional 15,000 in adjacent suburbs, making the total for the metropolitan area about 85,00o.
Mobile is the only seaport of Alabama, and until 1900 was its largest city. It occupies 20 sq.m. of a sandy plain. The Cochrane bridge and causeway, io-5 m. long (completed 1927) crosses the delta of the Mobile river and the headwaters of the bay, provid ing an uninterrupted passage by highway over the Old Spanish trail from Florida to California. The land-locked fresh water harbour, formed by the lower 5 m. of the Mobile river, is con nected with the Gulf by a 3o ft. channel and has ample anchorage. To June 3o, 1926, the Federal Government had spent $10,352,265 (spread over a century) in deepening the harbour and channel, which originally had a usable depth of only 5.5 feet. Extensive docks and terminal facilities (completed 1928) have been built by the State at a cost of $10,000,000. The U.S. quaran tine station occupies Sand island, at the entrance to the river. Pinto and Blakely islands, oppo site the city, are occupied by dry docks and ship-building yards, coaling stations and oil-tank farms. The U.S. Steel Corpora tion owns large tracts of land at Chickasaw, and other industrial developments fringe the north west boundary of the city. Five miles west is Spring Hill college, founded (1830) and conducted by Jesuits. There are 18th century buildings in the city, many residences of both ante-bellum and modern construction. The city's assessed valuation for 1927 was Since 1911 it has had a commission form of govern ment. Mardi Gras has been celebrated annually since 1830.
The harbour traffic in 1926 was 3,193,166 tons, valued at $121,878,580, of which $37,058,400 represented exports (mainly raw cotton, lumber and timber, iron and steel products) and imports (largely sodium nitrate, bananas, manganese and manganese ore and molasses). Garden truck and small fruits
are the leading money crops of the region. Over 2,000 carloads of cabbage and $1,000,000 worth of satsuma oranges and pecans are shipped annually, and the county boasts a "cabbage patch" of 500 acres. The output of the manufacturing industries was valued at $30,913,553 in 1927. Bank debits in 1926 aggregated $469,888,000.
Mobile was founded in 1702 and was the capital of the French province of Louisiana until 1720. The name was taken from the Mobile or Maubila Indians, who then occupied the region. By the Treaty of Paris (1763) Mobile was ceded to Great Britain; in 178o it was captured by a Spanish force; in 1813 it was seized for the United States by Gen. James Wilkinson, and in Aug. 1814 Gen. Andrew Jackson made it his headquarters, resisting an attack (Sept. 5) by the British on Ft. Bowyer at the mouth of the bay. After the War of 1812 American immigrants rapidly changed the French character of the place. A town charter was received from the territorial legislature of Mississippi in 1814; a city charter from the first State legislature of Alabama, in 1819. Throughout the 19th century it was the commercial metropolis of Alabama and Mississippi. Cotton exports increased from 7,000 bales in 1818 to 450,00o in 1840 and i,000,000 in 1861.
During the Civil War Mobile was an important port of the Confederacy. Despite a Federal blockade begun in 1861, trade with the West Indies and Europe was kept up by a line of swift vessels. In 1864 Admiral Farragut entered the channel, captured the Confederate ironclad ram "Tennessee," destroyed one gunboat and drove another aground, losing the Federal monitor "Tecum seh." Ft. Gaines, on Dauphin island, surrendered on August 7; Ft. Morgan, on Mobile Point, on August 23. In the spring of 1865 Gen. E. R. S. Canby laid siege to Ft. Blakely and Spanish Fort, on the east side of the bay. After 25 days the forts, and then the city, were evacuated, and the Federal forces entered the city on April 12. In 1879, in consequence of railway losses and the financial disturbance of 1873, the municipality became bankrupt. Its charter was vacated; trustees acting under the chancery court were appointed ; and a temporary municipal government, called the Port of Mobile, was established. In 1887 the city of Mobile was again chartered. A hurricane on Sept. 27, 1906, destroyed property valued at over $5,000,000: