BIRMINGHAM. A city and the county-seat of Jefferson County, Ala., and an important manufacturing centre. 97 miles northwest of Montgomery; on the Central llailroad of Georgia, the Louisville and Nashville, the Southern, the Alabama Great Southern, and the Kansas City, Memphis and Birmingham railroads (Map: Alabama, C 2), Birmingham was laid out in June. 1971, by the Elyton Land Company, and in the following December, with a population of less than 1000, it was chartered as a city. It did not progress rapidly until the end of 1880, when the great natural resources of the vicinity began to be developed, and, owing to its situation in a region rich in iron, coal, and limestone, it has become one of the most important and prosperous cities in the South. The chief industry is the manufacture of iron and steel in various forms. Besides pig-iron furnaces, foundries, engine and boiler works, machine- shops, and ear - wheel works, it has cotton-factories, packing-houses, cottonseed-oil mills, and extensive iron and coal mining and lumber interests. Birmingham has
three parks of great beauty—Capitol. East Lake, and Lakeview parks—an opera-house, and sev eral fine buildings, prominent among which are the Jefferson Theatre. the Jefferson County court house. the Union passenger-station, 600 feet long and 200 feet wide, and Saint Vincent Hospital, completed in 1900, at a cost of $250,000. About five miles northeast of the city, at East Lake, is Howard College (Baptist), organized in 1841. Birmingham is governed under a charter of 1898-99, which provides for a mayor, elected bi ennially, and a city council, which confirms the mayor's nominations to the board of education. The police commission, of seven members, is elect ed on the general ticket with other officials. The city expends about $300,000 yearly, the main items being: Police department, $:35,000; fire department, $45,000; and schools, $30,000, exclu sive of $20,000 devoted by the State and county. Population. in 1850, 3036; in 1890, 26,178; in 1900. 38.415.