The New Student's Reference Work/Sunderland

Sun′derland, a seaport of Durham, England, is at the mouth of Wear River, 13 miles northeast of the city of Durham. Among the public buildings are the town-hall, free library, museum, art-gallery, winter-garden and Victoria Hall, the scene of a terrible accident in 1883, in which 182 children were killed. There are over 70 churches, an infirmary, an orphan-asylum and several theaters and clubs. People's Park contains a monument of Havelock. There are two iron-bridges over the Wear, the older one built in 1793-6 and widened by Robert Stephenson in 1858-9. There are four large docks and five piers at the harbor. Coal and coke, bottles and glass, earthenware and lime are exported. Sunderland is noted for its 13 iron shipbuilding yards. Iron, glass, chemicals, rope, paper and lime are also manufactured. The famous Pemberton coal-pit is 380 fathoms deep, and some of the workings reach under the sea. Sunderland is known to have been a town as early as 1311. It was a small place till the beginning of the 19th century, but since then, owing to the improvement of its harbor and the growth of Durham's coal-trade, it has grown fast. Population 151,162.