ROSARIO, a city and river port of Argentina, in the province of Santa Fe, on the west bank of the Parana, 186 m. by rail N.W. of Buenos Aires. Pop. (1934, estimate) soo,o00. It ranks next to Buenos Aires in size and in trade. It is accessible to ocean going steamers of 26 ft. draught. The city stands on the eastern margin of the great pampean plain, 65 to 75 ft. above the wide river-bed washed out by the Parana. It extends back a consider able distance from the river, and there are country residences and gardens of the better class along the line of the Central Argentine railway and northward toward San Lorenzo. The city is laid out with chessboard regularity, and the streets are well paved, lighted with gas and electricity, traversed by tramway lines, and provided with sewers and water mains. The Boulevard El Santafecino is an attractive residence street with double drive ways separated by a strip of garden and bordered by fine shade trees. The chief edifices of an official character are the custom house, post-office, municipal hall and law courts. There is a large charity hospital, and the English and German colonies maintain a well-equipped infirmary. The largest sugar refinery in Argen tina is here, and there are flour-mills, breweries and some smaller manufactures. The city is chiefly commercial, being the shipping
port for a large part of northern Argentina, among its exports being wheat, flour, baled hay, linseed, Indian corn, sugar, rum, cattle, hides, meats, wool, quebracho extract, etc. The railway connections are good, including the Buenos Aires and Rosario and the Central Argentine lines to the national capital, the Buenos Aires and Rosario line northward to Tucuman, where it connects with the Government line to Salta, Jujuy and the Bolivian fron tier, the Central Argentine line westward to Cordoba, with con nections at Villa Maria for Mendoza and the Chilean frontier, and two narrow-gauge lines, one running to Santa Fe and the other to Cordoba. The port of Rosario is well equipped with modern appliances for handling freight.
Rosario was founded in 173o by Francisco Godoy, but it grew so slowly that it was still a small village up to the middle of the 19th century. In 1854 Gen. Justo Jose de Urquiza, then at the head of the Argentine Confederation, made it the port of the ten inland provinces then at war with Buenos Aires, and in 1857 imposed differential duties on the cargoes of vessels first breaking bulk at the southern port.