hour-. Pittsburg in twenty-one hours, and New York in twenty- 

 I hours. Cleveland, Ohio, is within eighteen hours. By 

 means of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, heavy products 

 may be carried to all the leading places lying on the navigable 

 water- of the Mississippi Valley. 



Eight lines of railroads are tributary to Nashville. This city 



an advantage in having lower freight rates than any 



theni city — thus enabling her merchants and manufacturers 



i '.1 their goods at lower prices than other markets. Two 



great raili items, the Illinois Central and the Southern, have 



entered Nashville within the past two years, adding 11,600 miles 



to the mileage previously operated. 



The Cumberland River, upon which Nashville is situated, is 

 navigable for boats of 400 tons burden to Point Burnside, a dis- 

 tance of 325 miles above Nashville, and for a distance of 193 

 miles bel..\v the city to the mouth of the river, giving a total 

 th of navigable waters for this stream of 518 miles (the 

 on of navigation lasts from eight to ten months during the 

 year>. By means of this stream connection is made with the 

 ( Ihio River, the Mississippi, and through them to all other navi- 

 gable streams of the Mississippi Valley. 



Statistics gathered by the Board of Trade show that the 

 wholesale trade of Nashville for 1905 was $131,000,000, an in- 

 crease of SJS.000,000 over the preceding year. In 1906 it was 

 probably twenty-five per cent more, while figures for 1907 will 

 far exceed the latter, demonstrating that its commerce is expand- 

 ing at a very rapid rate. The retail business added to the whole- 

 sale trade will, for 1907, likely reach the amount of $30,000,000. 



Nashville has more than 600 manufacturing plants, the ag- 

 gregate capital of which exceeds $20,000,000. These concerns 

 employ over 17,000 people, and the annual wages paid to their 

 employees i- mure than $6,000,000. The cost of material is $15,- 

 000,000, while the value of the products of these industrial es- 

 tablishments exceed $25,000,000 annually. 



There are about twenty financial institutions in Nashville, and 

 the bank clearings have shown a rapid increase during the past 

 few years. 



Tax rates are low, and real estate has advanced at a rapid 

 rate. Hundreds of homes have recently been erected in the city 

 and suburb-, and the demand for houses is large. The number 

 of building permits issued during the past twelve months has 

 broken all reo trds. 



Nashville is the best lighted city in the South, the fourth shoe 

 market in the United States, the fourth city in the Union as a 

 milling center, the largest hardwood lumber market in the world, 

 the largest grinder of soft winter wheat in the world, the most 

 Important egg and poultry market in the South, the largest manu- 

 facturer of commercial fertilizer in the United States, the second 

 city in the country, and the educational centre of the 

 S.-uth ha- the best paved streets in the South, the finest street 

 railway and lighl system in the South, manufactures a greater 

 variet) of articles than any other Southern City, and is the larg- 

 t jobbing market in the South, more colleges and universities 

 than any city in the Southern States; and ten libraries. 



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