PENNSYLVANIA. 



265 



p aces of worship, including 2 synagogues, 7 markets, 3 theatres, 16 banks, 18 insurance com 

 panies, a navy yard and arsenal of the United States. 



The city is supplied with watei 

 by means of the Fair Mount water 

 works, where the Schuylkill is dam- 

 med up, and the water of the river 

 raised into reservoirs holding nearly 

 25,000,000 gallons. From these 

 the water is conveyed by pipes, 

 amounting in their aggregate length 

 to 100 miles, through Philadelphia 

 and the suburbs. The daily con- 

 sumption is 4,000,000 gallons. 

 These works cost nearly half a 

 million dollars. There is a bridge 

 over the Schuylkill below the wa- 

 ter works ; the Delaware has no 

 bridge below Trenton ; the upper 

 Upper Ferry Bridge, PInladdphia. ferry bridge, over the Schuylkill, 



with an arch of 324 feet span, was lately destroyed by fire. 



The Eastern Penitentianj^ or State prison, is without the city, to the northwest. It stands on 

 an elevated spot, and is the largest building in the United States, occupying an area of 10 acres. 

 Its front is built of large blocks of granite, with towers at the angles and along the walls. 



The principal front is 670 feet in length. 

 The Jlhnshouse, a huge pile, on the west- 

 ern bank of the Schuylkill has accommo- 

 dations for 4,000 inmates. The County 

 prison, to the south of the city, consists 

 of a centre building, in the Gothic castel- 

 lated style, with 400 cells, and other 

 buildings of freestone in the Egyptian 

 style for debtors, &,c. 



Philadelphia was founded by William 

 Penn, in 1682, and chartered by him in 

 1701 ; but the charier under which it is 

 now governed was granted in 1796. The 

 government consists of a mayor, 2 coun- 

 cils, and a board of Aldermen ; the coun- 

 cils are elected by a popular vote ; the 

 mayor is elected annually by the councils, 

 and the aldermen are appointed by the 



Eastern Penitentiary. 



governor of the State. Population of the city and suburbs, 200,000. 



Pittsburg., in the western part of the State, is the next in importance to Philadelphia. It 

 stands upon a point of land at the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers, which 

 here take the name of Ohio. It is built on a regular plan, upon the slope of an eminence, and 

 a level plain at its foot. It is finely situated for trade, and enjoys a communication by steam- 

 boats with all the great towns on the Ohio and Mississippi ; but it is most distinguished for its 

 large and nourishing manufactures of glass, iron, woolen, and cotton. The surrounding country 

 is exceedingly rich in bituminous coal, which is delivered at the houses for three cents the 

 bushel. The constant use of this fuel causes a perpetual cloud of black smoke to hang over 

 the place. The suburbs, Birmingham and Alleghany, lie on the opposite sides of the 2 rivers, 

 and communicate with the city by bridges. A person in Pittsburg, who has been in Eng- 

 land, would imagine from the dingy aspect of the houses, which are blackened with smoke"^; 

 from the constant smell of burning coal, and streams of smoke which are ascending from the 

 furnaces in every direction, that he was in one of the great manufacturing towns of that 

 country. The coal is chiefly obtained from the southern side of the Monongahela ; the pits are 

 at an elevation of 2 or 300 feet from the river. They enter the earth horizontally, and some 



34 



