Tacoma, the county seat of Pierce
County, Washington, and the third city of
the state, is on Puget Sound at the head
of Commencement Bay and on the Puyallus
River, 28 miles south of Seattle. Tacoma
is a seaport, and is afforded rail transport
by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul,
Great Northern, Northern Pacific and
Oregon & Washington Railroad & Navigation
Company railroads. The environs of
Tacoma are rich in scenic beauty; the city
lies between the Cascade and Olympic
mountains, and 60 miles to the south is
Mount Rainier.
Tacoma has extensive commercial and
manufacturing interests; it has connections
with ports on the Pacific Coast, in the
Orient and in Europe, and from its manufactories
issue furniture, cereal foods, flour,
foundry and machine shop products, finished
lumber, dressed meats and many
other articles. Here is located a large
smelter and the car shops of the Northern
Pacific railroad.
The city has a system of modern public
primary and high schools, and the Annie
Wright Seminary, Pacific Lutheran University,
Whitworth College, University of
Puget Sound, a Carnegie library and a
school for Indians.
Attractive features are the 1,200 acre
park system, including Point Defiance,
McKinley and Wright parks; the city,
county and Federal buildings and the
Chamber of Commerce building; Tacoma
General, Northern Pacific, County and St.
Joseph's hospitals; custom house, State
Historical Society and Ferry Museum of
Art; and a number of modern office
buildings.
The present Tacoma originated in the
consolidation, in 1883, of two comparatively
young towns - Old Tacoma, settled
in 1868, and New Tacoma, founded in
1874. In 1900 there were 37,714 inhabitants;
in 1910, 83,743; in 1920, 96,965.
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