CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., city and county seat of Hamilton County, an important rail road, trade and manufacturing centre, on the south bank of the Tennessee River, and on the Southern, Central of G., Nashville, C. & Saint L., Cincinnati, N. O. & T. P, Alabama G. S. and other railroads. It is situated near the Georgia and Alabama boundaries, at the base of the Cumberland Plateau, 698 feet above the level of the sea. It is the centre of, and the largest place in, thequadrangle formed by Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta, Ga., distant respectively 151, 112, 143 and 137 miles. The lines radiating from Chattanooga tetminate in 43 important cities of nine States, and communicate with an area containing one-third of the population of the United States. The district around Chat tanooga, as the gateway of the Cumberland Range between the three States, was one of the greatest strategic points during the Civil War, and is historic for many bloody and famous battlefields. To the southwest is Lookout Mountain, commanding a superb view of six or seven States; on the east is Missionary Ridge; and south by east, a few miles away in Georgia, is the field of Chickamauga, now turned by the government into a national mili tary park of 6,000 acres. Adjoining the park is Fort Oglethorpe, a regimental cavalry post in connection with which, for purposes of the World War, there are a regular army camp, medical corps training camp, base hospital, prison for dangerous aliens; also a training camp for line officers, the third group of whom finished the course in April 1918. The medical camp is being enlarged and seems destined to be the chief medical corps training camp of the United States. At the southwest corner of the old city line is a national cemetery, one of the largest in the country, containing 13,362 graves. The whole region is a noted tourist resort, for historic and scenic reasons, served by 98 miles of street railroads, including the celebrated 4,750 feet incline up Lookout Mountain.
Public The city has many fine buildings, among which may be mentioned the Municipal building, costing $200,000; the Hamil ton County courthouse, costing $500,000, of Tennessee marble, a beautiful and imposing structure; the Federal building; the James building; the Hamilton building; the Times and the News buildings; Hotel Patten, costing $1, 000,000; Read Hotel; Signal Mountain Inn, which is 2,200 feet above sea-level, although only 40 minutes distant from the business dis trict, with golf, fishing, boating and bathing as amusements; Grand Hotel; Y. M. C. A., cost
ing $150,000; Y. W. C. A., costing $100,000; City High School and Central High School; Carnegie Library; Terminal Station, cost ing $1,000,000; Volunteer State Life Insur ance Company building, costing $500,000; and many beautiful churches. The Baroness Er langer Hospital, Pine Breeze Tuberculosis Sanitarium, Old Ladies' Home, Vine Street Orphans' Home, Frances Willard Working Girls' Home and Kosmos Cottage are the prin cipal charitable institutions. For higher educa tion the city contains the University of Chat tanooga, which has now new and modern buildings made possible by a $500,000 endow; ment; several preparatory schools, including one for girls; and the Chattanooga college of Law.
Trade and Manufactures.— The river here is navigable eight months in the year, and the Mussel Shoals Canal gives unbroken passage to its mouth by the Chattanooga Packet Com pany, which operates boats and barges regu larly to Ohio River points at a considerable saving in freight over the railroad rates; while northeastward, steamers run to Kingston, and at high water to Knoxville, 200 miles, by water. But the great and growing importance of Chat tanooga is in manufacturing, which it owes to its hydro-electric power derived from the Ten nessee and Ocoee rivers (cost of plants $15, 000,000), and the adjacent deposits of coal, iron (20,000 tons of coal and 8,100 tons of iron ore are mined daily), clays and many other minerals, and the forests. Articles made from wood, iron, steel and cotton can be manufac tured more cheaply in Chattanooga than any other place in the South.