MEXICO 



3775 



MEXICO CITY 



most tip of the Florida peninsula and the 

 northeasterly point of Yucatan are 450 miles 

 apart ; a line drawn between these points marks 

 roughly the southern limits of the Gulf, where 

 it joins the Caribbean Sea. Midway in the 



LOCATION MAP 



opening between Florida and Yucatan lies the 

 island of Cuba, and the open sea is reached 

 only by means of two passes, the Straits of 

 Florida and Yucatan Channel. This great oval 

 basin, with an east and west length of' 1,100 

 miles, a breadth of 800 miles and an area of 

 almost 700,000 square miles, has 3,000 miles of 

 low, level coast line, broken only by countless 

 lagoons and salty marshes shut off by the sand 

 bars. The low, sandy shores make few good 

 harbors, but the Gulf possesses the important 

 ports of Vera Cruz, Galveston, Mobile, Pensa- 

 cola, Tampa and Havana. 



Off the coast of Mexico the depth of water is 

 in places 12,700 feet (nearly two and a half 

 miles), while over a large area in that vicinity 

 it averages 12,000 feet, but elsewhere 10,000 feet 

 is the maximum. The Yucatan Channel and 

 the Straits of Florida are not nearly so deep, 

 and there are many shallow places with gently- 

 sloping bottoms, where the rivers pour in their 

 sediment. Chief of these rivers is the Missis- 

 sippi; others which pour their floods into the 

 Gulf are the Rio Grande, the Colorado of 

 Texas, the Mobile and the Apalachicola. On 

 the low coast of Florida and Yucatan there are 

 numerous little "keys," as they are called, but 

 save for these and Cuba the Gulf has no 

 islands. 



No feature about the Gulf of Mexico is more 

 noteworthy than the Gulf Stream. Entering 

 from the Caribbean Sea by the Yucatan Channel, 

 it flows about the coast, raising the temperature 

 of the Gulf eight or nine degrees above that of 



the Atlantic in the same latitude, and finally 

 issues into the Atlantic by way of the Straits of 

 Florida. It is difficult to overestimate the in- 

 fluence of the Gulf of Mexico on the 'climate 

 of the surrounding region, or even on that of 

 places far to the northward. Many places in 

 the Mississippi Valley have a warmer climate 

 than would be possible were it not for the 

 warm winds which sweep up from the Gulf, 

 while the spring rains which flood the tribu- 

 taries are due in large measure to the moisture- 

 bearing breezes from the south. See GULF 

 STREAM. A.MCC. 



MEXICO CITY, the metropolis of Spanish- 

 speaking North America and the capital of the 

 republic of Mexico, is one of the most inter- 

 esting cities of the Western world. Founded 

 by the Aztecs more than a century and a half 

 before Columbus started on his first voyage 

 towards the Americas, it has grown from an 

 Indian village of mud and rush huts to an 

 imposing city of over 470,000 inhabitants. Its 

 founders selected a site of unusual beauty. 

 The city is built on a plateau lying on the 

 west side of a great circular basin 2,220 square 

 miles in area, on the rim of which rise lofty 

 mountains and snow-capped volcanoes. The 

 waters which through the past centuries have 

 made their way down the mountain slopes into 

 the valley have collected in shallow basins and 

 formed six lakes which dot the surface of the 

 plain. 



Mexico City is 7,350 feet above the level of 

 the sea, over 2,000 feet higher than Denver; 

 it lies 263 miles west of Vera Cruz, on the 

 Gulf of Mexico, and 290 miles northeast of Aca- 

 pulco, on the Pacific coast. El Paso, Tex., a 

 storm center of the border disturbances of the 

 year 1916, is 1,224 miles to the northwest; La- 

 redo, in the same state, and, another frontier 

 town, is about 840 miles directly north. Mexico 

 City is connected by railroad with nearly all 

 the Mexican state capitals ai%d principal ports. 



Streets and Buildings. Fot three centuries 

 after the conquest of Mexico by Cortez, the 

 country was under Spanish rule, and the capital 

 city still has many features that suggest the 

 great cities of the mother country. The dwell- 

 ing houses, built of sandstone or lava, and but 

 one or two stories in height, are rendered pic- 

 turesque and charming by their terraced roofs 

 and inner courts. Because of the frequency of 

 earthquake shocks tall structures are not to be 

 found in Mexico City, and the tallest office 

 buildings rise no higher than five stories. Steel 

 is used to a considerable extent in modern con- 



