(f) How Lines of Inland Communication Make or Mar a Har bor.—A modern seaport can become of much importance only when it is served by numerous lines of land transportation. Along the Pacific coast, for example, the twin ports of San Francisco and Oakland are greatly helped because the combined Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys enable railways easily to reach the interior of California. Northward to the mouth of the Columbia River, on the other hand, no great city could grow up even if there were a good harbor, because high mountains everywhere hinder communication with the interior.
(g) How the Hinterland Determines the Trade of a Harbor.—A harbor has little value unless it has plenty of business. Business depends not only on the seaport itself, but on other places which are tributary to it. The region where such places are located is called the "hinterland." The importance of a hinterland depends not only on its size, but much more upon the number of inhabitants and their power to produce goods and to buy. Para is a seaport of minor rank, because its hinterland, the enormous basin of the Amazon, is sparsely populated and undeveloped. Providence, on the other hand, is far more important because its very limited hinterland, even though it embraces little more than Rhode Island, is densely popu lated and highly civilized.
A limited hinterland hinders the growth of a port even though the harbor is excellent, as is illustrated by the experience of a ship called the Minnesota. When she was built she was the largest vessel flying the American flag. She was put in commission between our Pacific coast and Oriental ports. Unfortunately, however, she could not at that time get a full load without a long wait. This was so expensive that finally she was transferred to the Atlantic side. The trouble was that on the Pacific side the hinterland contained too few people to supply full cargoes at frequent intervals. The hinterland on the Atlantic side, however, was so much more populous that it easily employed this ship and many others.
How a Great Harbor was Made in an Emergency: Brest.—The importance of most harbors is the result of gradual growth, but once in a while a harbor suddenly becomes great because of some emer gency. For instance, Gary, at the southern end of Lake Michigan, suddenly became a considerable port when the United States Steel Corporation established its plant there. The most striking example of this kind, however, is Brest in western France, at the end of the peninsula of Brittany. Before the Great War Brest Was a compar
atively insignificant port to which there came only one ship for every two hundred that came to Le Havre, near Paris, at the mouth of the Seine. Of the seven requirements for a good harbor Brest had only three. It was protected from winds and waves because it lies at the inner end of a deep gulf 14 miles long; for this reason it had abundant anchorage space; and there was plenty of space for docks because the coast of Brittany is submerged, so that it is long and winding.
In all other respects the harbor was far from first class: the water was not deep enough for large vessels either in the channel or close to the shore where docks would have to be made; there was little level land for the growth of a city, for the hills rise steeply so that in many cases the ascent from the lower to the upper town has to be made by means of flights of steps, and the second or third story of one house is often on a level with the ground floor of the next. More over, the lines of communication with the interior were only moderate, for the one direct railway to the interior of France winds greatly among the hills of Brittany and is not adapted to heavy traffic. Finally Brest had only a small hinterland, for the ports of Nantes on one side and Cherbourg and especially Le Havre on the other are so much nearer the main centers of France that Brest had only a part of Brittany as its hinterland.
When the United States entered the Great War in April, 1917, these other ports were so busy with the shipping of France and England, and it would have been so difficult to enlarge them, that this cow to ennvort. Brest into a first-class harbor. More over is the French port nearest America, and hence ships ran less danger from submarines in reaching it than in reaching more distant ports. Accordingly machinery of all kinds was at once sent over and thousands of soldiers fell to work with unbounded and enthusiasm. Great dredges scooped out a channel deep enough for the largest ocean liners. Huge docks of concrete were constructed with deep water alongside of them, and with railway tracks, cranes, and warehouses upon them. Space for camps, machine shops, and munitions works was obtained by going back onto the level plateau beyond the town and by running automobile lines to places that had hitherto been thought too far from the shore.