CITIES, AMERICAN. (AMSTERDAM, ATLANTIC CITY, BRADFORD.) 



119 



denominations predominate. Allentown, al- 

 though the center of a rich mineral and agri- 

 cultural district, depends mainly upon its 

 varied manufactures, the most important of 

 which are of iron and iron products, silk, fur- 

 niture, cigars, linen thread, boots and shoes, 

 barbed wire, leather, hosiery, brick, and lime. 

 Its public buildings are substantial and com- 

 modious. Muhlenberg College and Allen- 

 town Female College afford accommodation 

 for higher education. Allentown enjoys many 

 advantages, chief among which are its natural 

 drainage, its water-supply, its proximity to 

 limestone, iron, cement, and slate formations, 

 and its rich agricultural surroundings. 



Amsterdam, a city of Montgomery County, N. 

 Y., on the north side of the Mohawk river, 33 

 miles west of Albany. The population in 1870 

 was 7,706; in 1880, 11,710; in 1888, 17,403. 

 It is a thriving manufacturing center, and was 

 incorporated as a city in 1885. The New York 

 Central and Hudson River Railroad passes 

 through, leaving 1,042 car-loads of freight, and 

 receiving 600 car-loads monthly. It is touched 

 on the south side of Mohawk river, at Port 

 Jackson, by the West Shore Railroad and the 

 Erie Canal. In 1882 a system of water- works 

 was constructed at a cost of $271,221, which 

 is one of the best, in the country, having a press- 

 ure in the principal business center of 133 

 pounds to the square inch. In 1887 were laid 

 742 miles of sewers, under the separate sys- 

 tem, at a cost of $80,000. The work will be 

 continued until the city is completely sewered. 

 Street-cars traverse the principal streets, and 

 electric lights have been introduced. The free 

 schools occupy four buildings, one erected in 

 1884 at a cost of $12,000. There are 13 relig- 

 ious societies, and 11 churches, 4 erected in 

 1887. Three lines of stages connect the city 

 with outlying villages. There are 3 national 

 banks, 1 private bank, 1 savings-bank, 3 daily 

 newspapers, 5 weeklies, and 1 monthly, a 

 Children's Home, a Young Men's Christian 

 Association, and a Board of Trade. One car- 

 riage-spring manufactory employs 125 hand?. 

 There are also 1 burial-case manufactory, 2 

 planing-mills, 3 machine-shops and foundries, 

 1 paper-mill, 2 paper-box factories, and 2 dyeing 

 establishments. The broom industry employs 

 $300,000 capital and 600 hands, with a daily 

 output of 15,000 brooms and broom-brushes. 

 The Amsterdam Linseed- Oil Works, established 

 at Galway in 1824, removed to Amsterdam in 

 1857, consume 750,000 bushels of flax-seed 

 yearly, producing 1,700,000 gallons of oil, and 

 15,000 tons of oil- cake. The works employ 100 

 men. Carpet manufacturing employs 275 

 looms and 2,100 persons, with an annual out- 

 put of 4,000,000 yards. In the manufacturing 

 of knit goods there are 15 firms, with 112 sets 

 of machinery, and 25,176 spindles, producing 

 2,980 dozens of garments daily, and employing 

 2,190 hands. The total value of manufactured 

 products is $8,500,000. The total assessed val- 

 uation of the city is $7,000,000. 



Atlantic City, a health-resort on the Southern 

 New Jersey coast, about 65 miles southeast of 

 Philadelphia, with which city it is connected 

 by rail. Atlantic City is built on an island 

 known as Absecom Beach, a ridge of sand 

 about half a mile wide and ten miles long, five 

 or six miles from the main-land. The popula- 

 tion in 1880 was 5,477; in 1885, 7,942; in 

 1887, estimated at 10,000. Atlantic City is alto- 

 gether a health-resort, having no manufact- 

 uring industries whatever. It is supplied with 

 excellent water from the main-land, has a com- 

 plete system of underground drainage, and has 

 three banks and two newspapers. The streets 

 are regularly laid out, lined with shade-trees, 

 and graded and graveled. There are about 

 one hundred hotels and boarding-houses, one 

 third of which are open all the year. During 

 Lent, Atlantic City is thronged with fashion- 

 able visitors from Philadelphia and New York. 

 The city is governed by a Mayor and Common 

 Council, has a Board of Health, a Board of 

 Trade, a dozen churches, fifteen different se- 

 cret societies, ten physicians, as many lawyers, 

 and a public-school system that employs more 

 than thirty teachers. The city is lighted with 

 gas and electricity. A board walk, or elevated 

 beach promenade, extends along the beach 

 front a distance of about three miles, which at 

 all seasons is a favorite resort for promenaders. 

 Building operations are extensively carried on 

 during the autumn and spring. Absecom Light- 

 house is the only Government building. There 

 are many cottages and summer residences. 



Bradford, a city in McKean County, Pa., on 

 Tuna creek, a tributary of Allegheny river, 

 125 miles by rail north by east from Pittsburg, 

 and 62 miles south by east from Buffalo. The 

 population in 1870 was 400; in 1880, 9,127; 

 and in 1887, was estimated at 12,000. Four 

 systems of railroad enter the city, one of 

 which operates three diverging lines, and a 

 horse-car railroad traverses the main streets, 

 running to the suburb of Tarport. The manu- 

 facturing interests comprise three large oil and 

 gas well supply-works, a large tooth-pick fac- 

 tory, and numerous smaller industries. The 

 growth of the city has been remarkable, as it 

 had a population of only 500 in 1875 when the 

 petroleum development around it was begun. 

 It is the center of the great Bradford oil-field, 

 which contains 100,000 acres of productive 

 territory, on which over 15,000 wells have been 

 drilled, at a cost of $38,000,000. About 14,000 

 of these are still producing an aggregate of 22,- 

 000 barrels a day. The field has already pro- 

 duced nearly 145,000,000 barrels of oil, which 

 has been sold for over $100,000,000. The 

 transactions in the Bradford Oil Exchange 

 since its organization in 1879, have averaged 

 1,500,000 barrels daily, and on one day reached 

 an aggregate value of $3,000,000. The value 

 of sawed lumber taken from the adjacent for- 

 ests reaches $3,000,000 annually. Six news- 

 papers 3 daily, 2 Sunday, and 1 weekly are 

 published, and a monthly magazine devoted to 



