Shipping, Commerce, Manufactures, At the port of Baltimore 31 Dec. 1914, in the coastwise trade for the dis trict of Maryland, 1,939 vessels were docu mented in a recent year. This includes Cris field, Annapolis, Washington, D. C., and Alex andria, Va.— more than the number of vessels documented at any other Atlantic seaport, ex cept New York. In addition to these vessels, nearly all the vessels documented at Virginia and North Carolina ports trade on the Chesa peake Bay, making a total (estimated by the collector of the port of Baltimore) of about 4,000 documented vessels trading on the Chesa peake Bay. Most of these vessels, of course, trade at Baltimore. Baltimore has 18 miles of water front suitable for docking purposes (in cluding 634 miles in the main inner harbor, 3Y2 miles on the Middle Branch within technical city limits, and at least 8 miles more.adjacent to the city limits). It has 160 wharves in the main harbor, with 145,700 feet — say 274 miles —of frontage of wharf room. Adding this amount of wharf frontage, to the other water front of the Patapsco River and its tributaries, the total is 120 miles of water front, developed and undeveloped. Of this wharf age the city owns 13 piers, with a wharf frontage of 26,385 feet—five miles. Baltimore has spent $6,161,000 on municipal docks, and has available 5,000,000 more for extending the system. Baltimore's .business operations ag gregate more than $1,000,000,000, manufactures leading. Total annual value of manufactures, shown by figures assembled recently, exceeds $400,000,000. The largest single interest is clothing at $44,500,000. Copper, tin and sheet iron products come next at $32,000,000. Fertilizer, which is fourth, shows the largest rate of increase. The total is now $16, 000,000. Baltimore stands first in the manufac ture of cotton duck, straw hats, men's clothing, fertilizers, copper, tin and sheet iron products, canning and preserving oysters, and as a banana market.
There are over a thousand wholesale and jobbing houses in Baltimore. Two hundred of these firms carry over 300,000 accounts in the South alone. A fair minimum estimate of the amount of Baltimore capital invested in South ern States below the Potomac is $200,000,000. Baltimore's jobbing trade, not including the commission business, reaches $250,000,000. The leading items are dry goods and notions, mil linery, clothing, boots and shoes, hats and caps, drugs, groceries and food products, all of. which show large increases over 1910. In addi tion to the annual jobbing trade of $250,000,000 are the grain trade and shipping figures of over $100,000,000 and the comnussion business of over $100,000,000. The average freight received and distributed at Baltimore by railroad and boat lines annually is over 48,000,000 tons. Baltimore's receipts in a recent year were 90,171,602 bushels of grain and 1,808,672 barrels of flour, which, together with hay, straw and mill feed handled, aggregated 72,423 tons. Baltimore's imports for a calendar year were $38,941,666; exports, $308,975,629. Baltimore's bemking resources are $296,858,616, not including bonding or credit companies. Baltimore's annual bank clearings are $2,206,338,952. Its national bank deposits
in 10 years increased 47.9 per cent. The bank clearings. in • 10 years increased 72 per cent. Post-office receipts annually aggregate $2, 993,3138.
Modem Improvements.— In 1904 Balti more had a fire which up to that time, with the exception of the big Chicago fire, was the most destructive conflagration that ever visited an American city. It destroyed most of the business district, burned over 140 acres of busi ness block and entailed a loss of $125,000,000 or practically one-fifth of the wealth of the community: At first the blow was staggering, but the people responded to the situation with great courage and went so far as to decline the hundreds of thousands of dollars offered, much of it in actual cash, that poured in from other cities. Baltimore's citizens decided over night not only to rebuild but to take their losses and do their construction on their own resources.
Until that time the growth of the city had been along conservative lines. A sentimental as well as an actual connection with the great Southern trade gave it a constant and substan tial increase and made its development steady and assured. But the fire stirred it as it had never been affected before and all at once the fine enterprise and broad ideas of its people found an awakening. A Burnt District Com mission was created, and to this Commission were entrusted extensive and almost autocratic powers. The results were wider streets with reduced grades, the wonderful dock system and improvements of similar kinds that under nor mal conditions could not have been secured in half a century. After 12 years, practically every trace of the fire had been obliterated. The business district has risen from its ashes into what the building inspectors pronounce the best built and most substantial business section that can be found in any city in America. Bal timore to-clay presents a unique superiority in its equipment for the handlmg of the great business which has been coming to it in con stantly increasing volume, while as a city of homes Baltimore has always enjoyed the most enviable reputation. Confined by no limits, her expansion has widened the area of her pnvate residences without increasing the difficulties of business, but facilitating them by modern and up-to-date street car and motor bus systems.
Public Buildings.— First in municipal im portance, though possibly not in the cost or beauty of design, is the aty hall, built of Mary- land white marble, the style of architecture, being the .Renaissance. Cost of oonstruction.
1,135.64; cost of furnishing, $104,264.79. El new courthouse is 200 feet front by 325 feet depth. The material is white Maryland marble, and the architectural style is a free Renaissance treatment of the Ionic order. The cost of this building completed was $2,753, 003.1& The post-office, located opposite the courthouse is also a recent erection, Italian in general treatment. The building contains the United States and District Courts. The cost was $2,011,835. The custom-house cost over $1,500,000, the style of architecture is Classic and was built of Maryland granite.