BALTIMORE, Md., the chief city of the State, the 7th in population of the United States, and the commercial head of the Atlantic seaboard south of New York; on the Pennsyl vania (P., B. & W.), Baltimore and Ohio, West ern Maryland, Northern Central and other rail roads; 38 miles northeast of Washington, 97 southwest of Philadelphia.
The city is admirably sit uated at the head of tidewater on an arm of the great Chesapeake Bay, in former times known as 'Patapsco 12 miles long by an average of 3 miles wide, forking at the peninsula on which Fort McHenry stands, and creating the land-locked harbor known as the Northwest Branch. This celebrated harbor is noted for the ease with which ships of great burden may be docked or moored at any stage of the tide, the tidal movement being only from one foot to one foot six inches. The ship Channel from this inner harbor to the sea has been for many years of sufficient depth to permit the passage of ships drawing 35 feet of water and over to the docks and elevators of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on the southern side as you enter, and the Pennsylvania Railroad system on the eastern side of the harbor. South of the above mentioned peninsula is another wide fork of the greater harbor, known as the Middle Branch, on which are located the great termi nals of the Western Maryland Railroad; this again forks, receiving the waters of the small Patapsco River and Gwynn's Falls, on either hand. Through the centre of the city flows a stream which, rising some distance north of the inner harbor, has its fountain-head at springs which flow 500,000 gallons per da. It is known as °Jones after David Jones, who built himself a house on its banks about 1680. On its banks are located the union sta tion of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, whose grounds bordering on the stream are embellished with tasteful gardens, and the city has beautified the other shore by constructing Isunkeno gardens. The land area of the city in 1888 was 13,202 acres, of property annexed in 1888 was 16,939 acres, of the harbor 1,507 acres, making the total area of the present city 31,648 acres.
Transportation.— Baltimore has a very modern and excellent street car service; it can boast of the fact that it had the first electric street railway and the first electric elevated railway in the world. The street railways have 404.5 miles of rails now being operated on the streets and suburban points within the radius of its operations. The Delaware and Chesa peake Ship Canal, across the narrow strip of Delaware, gives it a direct water outlet to Philadelphia. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
system (q.v.) follows almost without change the route of the old national pike, which extended from Baltimore to Saint Louis; it was the first road to the Atlantic seacoast and the corner stone was laid 4 July 1828. The facilities pro vided by this road are the great terminals lo cated at Locust consisting of freight sheds, elevators, and the proper loading docks with a water depth of 35 feet, connecting with the ship channel to the sea of the same depth. Within recent years an .immigration pier and necessary buildings have been erected.
The terminals of the Pennsylvania Railroad are on the eastern or opposite side of the harbor from the Baltimore and Ohio terminals. They have the same depth of water in the freight slips and have direct communication with the 35-foot channel. The principal road of this system passing through this city is the Phila delphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad, and its branches. Running a little west of south from this city is still another important feeder, the old Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, so called prior to recent consolidation, which passes through Washington, terminates at Quantico, Va., branching at Bowie, Md. The Merchants and Manufacturers' Association had much to do with the introduction of another great railway system into this city, in the mat ter of the sale of the city's interest in the Western Maryland Railroad to what was known as the "Fuller Syndicate)) together with the purchase of the Pittsburgh and West Vir ginia Central and the acquisition of the Wabash system. The Baltimore and Potomac has a tunnel 7,400 feet long through the west side of the city; the Northern Central one 3,500 feet long through the northeast; the Baltimore and Ohio one 1 miles long through the city north to south. The Baltimore and Ohio road draws its trains through by electric motors. Seventeen foreign steamship lines use the docks and piers of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad or the Pennsylvania Railroad Com pany. These lines run to Europe and South America and other ports. Besides these there are steamship lines to Boston, Providence, New York, Wilmington, N. C., Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, etc.; and steamboat lines to Philadelphia, Washington, Norfolk, Richmond, Georgetown, Chester, Galveston, Jacksonville, Havana, Cuba, and to points on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.