BANGOR. A city, port of entry, and the eounty-seat of Penobscot County, Maine, 137 miles northeast of Portland, at the head of navigation on the Penobscot River, and on the Maine Central and other railroads, and the Boston and Bangor Steamship Line (Slap: Maine, F 6). The Kenduskeag Stream, which here empties into the Penobscot, divides the city, the sections of which are united by several bridges; and a bridge 1300 feet long, over the Penobscot. connects Bangor with the opposite city of Brewer. The city is the seat of the Bangor Theological Seminary (Congregational), founded in 1316, and has a fine custom-house of granite, a public library of about 47,000 volumes, the Eastern Maine Insane Hospital, and the Eastern Maine General Hospital. The grounds of the Eastern Maine State Fair Asso ciation are also in the city. Bangor is an important commercial and manufacturing centre with advantages of excellent water-power, and a good harbor, having a deep-water frontage of three miles. The lumber interests arc very extensive: ice-eutting is of some importance; and there are large foundries and machine-shops, boot and shoe factories, trunk and valise fac tories, and manufactures of clothing, dairy prod ucts, flour, etc. In 1901 the value of the city's commerce was nearly $5,400,000, of which less than $1.200,000 was in the trade. The
government, under a charter of 1834, is vested in a mayor, elected annually, and a bicameral city council, which controls the appointments of most of the administrative officers, though some are nominated by the mayor, subject to the consent of the board of aldermen. The water-works and electrie-light plant are owned and operated by the municipality. Population, in 1890, 19,103; in 1900, 21,850.
Bangor is one of the many places supposed to be the site of the mythical city. Norumbega (q.v.). In 1550, Andre Thevet, the cosmog rapher, seems to have visited the spot and re ports that a French fort called was then in existence. The first permanent settlement was made in 1769 by Jacob Braswell, a 'soldier and hunter, boat-builder and cooper.' The place was known as 'Kenduskeag Plantation' until 1787, and as `Sunbury' from 1787 to 1791, when it was incorporated as a town under the name of Bangor. In 1834 it. was chartered as a city. Consult: History of Penobscot County (Cleveland, 1882) ; various articles in the Ban gor historical Magazine, Vol. I. (Bangor, 1SS6) and an article, "Annals of Bangor," in The Maine Historical Magaz'ine, Vol. IX. (Bangor. 1895).