network of transcontinental railroads
centering in Tacoma, which, coupled with the steamboat traffic on
the Sound, gives the county splendid traffic facilities. Pierce county
[Page 75]
for years was a non-competitive railroad point, the Northern Pacific
being the only road to enter its vast fields of wealth. Within the
last two years, however, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the
Union Pacific system, and the Great Northern, realizing the wealth
of the county and the importance of Tacoma as a manufacturing center,
the value of her perfect harbor for shipping, the vastness of her
great stretch of level tidelands for factory sites and terminal
yards, and the low cost at which freight can be transferred from the
rails to the sails or _vice versa_, have entered the field and are
now spending $11,000,000 on construction and terminal work in the
city of Tacoma. The addition of these new roads means a wonderful
impetus to the trade of Tacoma. The Tacoma Eastern railroad, a
beautiful scenic route, beginning at Tacoma, runs in a southeasterly
direction through a wonderfully fertile country and vast forests
of splendid timber, to Rainier National Park and Mount Rainier
(Mt. Tacoma). Several trolley lines are in operation, reaching all
the near-by towns and connecting Tacoma and Seattle.

In addition to these lines, many steamboats and crafts of all kinds,
plying the waters of Puget Sound and the Pacific ocean, find abundant
wharfage and anchorage in the harbor of Tacoma. The products of
the world in large quantities pass through Tacoma in process of
distribution. A constant stream of small crafts, running about
the waters of the county, accommodate the local traffic.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

TACOMA, with a population of about 125,000, is the county seat of
Pierce county, and situated on Commencement bay. Its harbor, one
of the finest in the world, and its railroad terminals, unexcelled
on the Pacific Coast, as already indicated, are the center of a
vast commerce by rail and water. At its door is an immense amount
of water power, already developed, driving her street cars and the
machinery in many of her factories. Coal and coke are in abundance
within a few miles of the city, the coal being used extensively
for steam and conveyed from the trains to the boats by immense
electric bunkers. The coke is largely utilized in the largest lead
and copper reduction plant on the coast. The great Guggenheim smelter
at Tacoma reduces and t