PLYMOUTH, Mass., town, county-seat of Plymouth County, on Plymouth Harbor, a part of Massachusetts Bay, and on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, 38 miles southeast of Boston. It was here that the Pilgrims landed from the Mayflower, 21 Dec 1620, and established the first permanent English colony in America. Plymouth Rock on which they first landed is carefully pre served, and is now covered by a granite canopy. Other places of interest in the town are Pilgrim Hall, 'where books, pictures and other valuable relics of the Pilgrims and Colonial times are kept, Leyden street, on which the early settlers built, and Cole's Hill and Burial Hill, where many of the first settlers are buried. Ply mouth also has the national monument to the Pilgrims, dedicated in August 1889. Its cen tral figure is a granite statue of Faith, with the four figures of Morality, Law, Education and Freedom at the base; the height of the monu ment is 81 feet. The town has a variety of manu factures; they include cordage (the largest manufactory in the world of this kind, em ploying about 2,000 persons and running night and day), woolen goods, tacks, insulated wire, nails and electrical supplies. The harbor is nearly land-locked, and contains about 2,000 acres of flats, on which are extensive ((clam the scientific cultivation of these shell fish forming an important industry. Deep channels admit large ships and barges to the wharves. Foreign steamships bring large amounts of fibre directly to the Cordage com pany from Yucatan, and the entries at the Plymouth custom-house show that, as a port of foreign import, Plymouth ranks in Massa chusetts directly next to Boston.
Plymouth is an electrical centre, distributing to the surrounding towns light, power for street railways, and illuminating the Cape Cod Ship Canal each night on both sides of its entire land length of eight miles.
The manufacturing product of the town ag gregates about $14,000,000 annually. On ac count of its beautiful situation and historic in terest Plymouth is also a popular summer and tourist resort, its annual visitation exceeding 100,000 and including many summer dwellers. It has a fine forest park of 200 acres. The waterworks are owned and operated by the town. Pop. 14,000. Consult Banvard, 'Ply mouth and the Pilgrims' ; Davis, W. T., 'His tory of the Town of Plymouth' (Philadelphia 1885) ; Bradford, of Plymouth Planta tion' (1898) ; Baylies, Francis, An Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth' (2 vols., Boston 1866) ; Bliss, W. R., Colony Town and Other Sketches' (Boston 1893) ; Davis, W. T., Landmarks of Ply mouth> (2d ed., ib. 1899) ; Goodwin, T. A., The Pilgrim Republic' (ib. 1888) ; of the Town of Plymouth' (Plymouth 1889— 92) ; Bradford, William, 'History of Plymouth Settlement, 1620-50,' edited by Paget (New York 1909). See MsssscHustrrs.