What Philadelphia is; a sketch of the industries and leading characteristics of the cityWith special reference to its historic past . a-tion, so superbly managed as to challenge the ad-miration even of those to whom figures of millionsare as easy of mastery as the simple sum in arith-metic on a childs slate. QHIP-BUILDINGS THRIVING CONDITION. ^ J ooooooooooooooo ^^V. Perhaps the Philadelphia industrythat is attracting most attention the world over justnow is that of ship-building,—its oldest industry. Itis only a few weeks since the report was flashedaround the globe that the fastest war-ship
What Philadelphia is; a sketch of the industries and leading characteristics of the cityWith special reference to its historic past . a-tion, so superbly managed as to challenge the ad-miration even of those to whom figures of millionsare as easy of mastery as the simple sum in arith-metic on a childs slate. QHIP-BUILDINGS THRIVING CONDITION. ^ J ooooooooooooooo ^^V. Perhaps the Philadelphia industrythat is attracting most attention the world over justnow is that of ship-building,—its oldest industry. Itis only a few weeks since the report was flashedaround the globe that the fastest war-ship afloat, ifnot the fastest vessel of large size in the world, hadjust made her record off the Delaware capes. It isalso matter of frequent occurrence for representativesof nations from all over the world to pay a visit ofinspection to that wonderful ship, at present onlypartially successful, but which bids fair to revolutionizenaval warfare when some minor conditions are elimi-nated,—the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius. The wholeof the new navy, so called, of the United States thusfar launched, has been built on the Delaware, with. Z) o o i o XCO a: LUlCO o5 WHAT PHILADELPHIA IS. 41 the exception of one cruiser in San Francisco and apfunboat in Baltimore. There are two stac^es in theconstruction of even the new navy. The more re-cent has been built in Philadelphia, while the pioneersin the fleet were finished about five years atro at Ches-ter, less than a score of miles below Philadelphia. Ship-building began in Philadelphia in 1683, theyear after its actual settlement. It has continued aleading industry from that time down to the present,reaching its most thriving period from 1810 to 1830,when the American flag held supremacy on the highseas. The Delaware has, therefore, been called theClyde of America. Ihe output at 1830 was prob-abl) not as great as that to-day, but there were manymore yards in operation, all engaged in constructingwooden ships. Ship-building began here, as an
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublisherphila, bookyear1890
