MACON, Ga., city and county-seat of Bibb County, popularly known as the "Heart of Georgia," 86 miles by rail from Atlanta, 191 from Savannah and 125 from Augusta.
It lies on the southeastern edge of the Ap palachian mountain wall, on both sides of the Ocmulgee River which pours from the upper plateau with a fall of 90 feet in seven miles above the city. An immense concrete dam 103 feet high spans the river 36 miles up, furnish ing hydro-electric current for power and light, operating street cars and factories and lighting the city. An auxiliary steam plant is located in the city for emergency use. The Ocmulgee is spanned by four steel bridges. The river is navigable to the ocean, is open all the year round, and even at low water steamers of three feet draught operate to Brunswick and Savannah, making connection at those points with coastwise and ocean shipping. Macon is the most important railroad centre in the State; six trunk lines with radiating lines give 14 outlets, north, east, south and west ; it is the concentration point for tourist trains during the winter season enroute to Florida. A new union passenger station, opened October 1916, cost over a million dollars; it faces Cherry street, the principal thoroughfare of the city.
Macon is in the midst of the cotton section of the State and is the fourth inland cotton market in the United States, well equipped with warehouses and compress, annual receipts over 200,000 bales, a considerable portion of which is manufactured by the numerous cotton mills into cloth, yarns, twine, duck, knitted underwear, hosiery, automobile tire fabrics.
Macon is also the clearing-house for the great fruit belt in central Georgia. within 30 miles of the great peach orchards; an annual average of 4,000 carloads of peaches, plums, pears, cantaloupes and other fruits pass through the city. Three large factories furnish the ice for refrigeration. Within a radius of 50 miles, lies inexhaustible supplies of kaolin, feldspar, fire clays and clays for making brick and terra cotta. The largest brick manufacturing plant in the southeast is located in Macon; every style of brick, tile, sewer pipe and terra cotta is produced here. The Central of Georgia Rail
way maintains a $2,000,000 shop at Macon where cars are built and locomotives for 2,000 miles of line are maintained. The Georgia, Southern and Florida Railway also has ex tensive shops at their headquarters of 300 miles of main line. Other railroads also have shops here. The Census Bureau's summary concern ing the city, period 1909-14, gives the number of manufacturing establishments in 1914 as 70; persons engaged in manufactures, 4,491; wage earners, 4,047; primary horse power (local) used, 15,883; capital invested, $11,552,000; serv ices, $2,395,000; salaries, $594,000; wages, $1,801 000; materials, $14,025,000; value of products, $18,867,000; value added by manufacture, $4,842,000.
The actual number is greater than stated . one owner is reported for several establish ments owned or controlled by one concern. There are a number of establishments manu facturing fertilizer, hardwood, agricultural im plements, located outside the city limits which are not included in the foregoing, which are properly Macon investments. The principal manufactures are cotton goods, cloth, yarns, underwear, hosiery, duck, twine and automo bile tire fabrics. Cottonseed oil, cake, meal, etc., for food and provender, the seed netting the planter nearly as much as the cotton fibre. Brick, sewer pipe, tile, terra cotta, granite pav ing block, foundry and machine shops, railroad shops, products, harness, saddlery, agricultural implements, carriages, wagons, furniture, office fixtures, confectionery, barrels, handles, four ice factories, one of them capacity of 500 tons per day.
Macon has eight banks and trust companies with a total capital of $1,695,000; surplus. $958, 500. The annual deposits reach $7,495,000. The largest annual clearings reached in 1912 ($193,000,000), show a slight decrease on ac count of general depression and European War. Average deposits per capita, $170; average for the United States is only $35.