Public Buildings and Monuments.— The chief of these are on or near the Campus Mar tius. Within it, facing the City Hall, is the Michigan Soldiers and Sailors' Monument, by Randolph Rogers, of bronze and granite, 55 feet high, with a colossal bronze allegorical statue of Michigan on the summit; it cost $75,000 and was unveiled in 1871. On the west, facing four streets, is the City Hall, three stories and mansard, of sandstone in the Italian style; 200x90 feet, 60 feet high to top of cornice, 180 to top of tower; it originally, in 1870, cost $600,000, and is one of the finest in the West. Near by are the handsome Wayne County courthouse, the largest public building in the city, the splendid Majestic office building, the Ford building, Penobscot building and new Dime Bank building, 22 stories high. On the north of the Campus is the Detroit opera house. The United States government building, ac commodating the post-office, customs and inter nal revenue office and United States courts, oc cupies a whole block bounded by Fort and La fayette, Shelby and Wayne streets. Within the past three years the blocks fronting the West Grand Circus have been built up with lofty office and hotel structures, and near the East Grand Circus are the Y. M. C. A. and Athletic Club buildings. Monuments to Ste vens T. Mason, first governor of the State, Gen. Alexander Macomb, who commanded at the battle of Plattsburg in 1914, and Mayors Pingree and Maybury adorn the central squares.
Public Service and Improvements.— The city has 836 miles of streets, of which 593 are paved, mostly with brick,, asphalt or creosote block. It has 236 miles of public sewers and 600 miles of laterals, and is inaugurating ex tensive additions to its sewer systems to accom modate future growth. The water supply is taken from a crib at the head of the American channel of Detroit River, 1,500 feet from the shore and at a depth of 46 feet. The pumping stations house has eight engines with a daily ca pacity of 250,000,000 gallons. The average daily consumption for the last reported year was 142,578,231 gallons, or 173 gallons per cap ita per day. The maximum for any single day's pumping was 194,000,000 gallons. There are in the system 1,076 miles of pipe and 6,350 public hydrants. The works are owned by the city and are supported by rates. The value of the waterworks buildings and pumping plants is about $5,000,000.
The city is lighted by electricity furnished by a plant municipally owned. There are 9,920 lights furnished for street lighting and the pub lic buildings and school buildings are lighted by this plant. Private lighting and power is furnished by the Edison Company. Value of public lighting plant in 1917, $1,300,000.
The police department has a force of 1,600 men and the fire department one of 900 men, with 42 engine companies, 15 ladder companies, 7,257 hydrants and 517 reservoirs.
The electric railway system is owned and operated by a single company, the Detroit Uni ted Railway. It consists of 298 miles within
the city limits and nearly 600 miles of inter urban lines radiating in all directions. In 1917 there were 484,727,818 passengers carried. The fare on about one-third of the city lines is eight tickets for a quarter during the day and six for a quarter at night, with transfers to other portions of the same lines. On the rest of the city system the fare is five cents with universal transfers. There are three railway passenger stations in the city, the Grand Trunk, foot of Brush street; the Union Depot, corner of Third and Fort, accommodating the Pere Marquette, Wabash and Canadian Pacific; the Michigan Central, Michigan avenue and 15th street, accommodating that road and the Lake Shore.
Parks, Pleasure Resorts, Public Amuse ments, Etc.—Detroit has 31 public parks besides a number of small triangular squares caused by the intersection of the radiating avenues with the streets, often with fountains. The largest, and the principal public resort, is Belle Isle in the river, whose entire 707 acres have been parked with great beauty. It is reached by ferries and by a temporary wooden bridge. The island has cost the city for purchase price and improvements $2,021,689. The annual cost for maintenance is about $150,000, The next largest is Palmer Park, of 141 acres, on Wood ward avenue, about 6% miles from the river, sedulously made a colonial museum; it has a colonial log house; and a most interesting col lection of colonial and other historical relics, besides a colonial casino. The park was a gift to the city by the late Thomas W. Palmer. Clark Park in the west has 32 acres; in part a gift from J. P. Clark. Voigt Park, 854 acres, and the Grand Circus, in each of whose quad rants made by Woodward avenue there is a fountain, 5% acres. Besides these, there are opportunities for delightful summer trips on the river and lakes; and the river is dotted with charming places where excursion steamers run, from Grosse Pointe, on Lake Saint Clair, famed for its cherry orchards, to Grosse Isle, where Lake Erie opens. There are 20 theatres and opera houses in the city, the largest of which are the Detroit, Garrick and Washing ton theatres and the Lyceum. There are also 148 moving picture theatres. The finest ceme teries are Elmwood (Protestant) and Mount Elliott (Catholic), side by side on the north east, about two miles from the centre; beauti ful in keeping and monuments; four miles to the southwest of the centre of the city, and within the city limits; Woodlawn, a beautiful cemetery, situated seven miles on Woodward avenue, and Mount Olivet, large (Catholic) cemetery about seven miles out at the northeast. Grand Lawn, the largest and newest, .is nine miles from the city limits, on Grand River avenue. There are a number of Lutheran and Jewish cemeteries, making 23 in all.