LESSON XXXIV.
1. Commerce.—The commerce, both domestic and foreign, that is carried on in the Middle Atlantic states is very great.
The railways and canals are constantly carrying wheat, cotton, and other produce into the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Here these products are placed in ships and steamers and sent all over the world.
Lower New York city, photographed from the roof of the Produce Exchange. On the left is Broadway.
In the center is the U.S. Sub-Treasury, a low building with columns. Three of these columns can be seen.
West of it is Nassau Street. In front is Broad Street and the Mills Building. Wall Street runs east and west in front of it.
Philadelphia, Pa.
2. New York is the largest city in America. It contains about five million inhabitants. Its manufactures are vast; its commerce is immense. In its harbor we may see ships from every part of the globe.
Lying in great piles on the wharves are boxes of tea, silk, and fire-crackers from Asia; coffee from South America; sugar, bananas, and pineapples from the West Indies; raisins, currants, and figs from the Mediterranean.
What has made New York such a great commercial city? First, it has a fine harbor, deep and wide. Second, it is at the mouth of the Hudson river, and this river and the Erie canal connect it with the great farming region of the country. Third, numerous railways also bring into it immense quantities of wheat and other produce.
Brooklyn, now a part of New York, is noted for the shipment of grain and for sugar refining.
Wheat is brought here in canal barges and railroad cars and placed in storehouses. It is afterwards put into ships and sent across the ocean.
3. Philadelphia is a great commercial city, and one of the leading manufacturing cities. It is on the Delaware river, and has easy access to the ocean through the Delaware bay.
4. Baltimore, on the Chesapeake bay, is the largest city of Maryland. Its manufactures are important, and it carries on a large domestic and foreign commerce.
The oysters of the Chesapeake bay are sent from Baltimore to distant parts of this country, and even to Europe.
5. Other Cities.—Buffalo, on Lake Erie, is a very busy place. It has an enormous trade in wheat, flour, cattle, and lumber.
Richmond, the capital of Virginia, at the falls of the James, has large iron works and an extensive tobacco trade.
Capitol grounds, Washington monument and St. Paul's church, Richmond, Va.
For Recitation.—For what are the Middle Atlantic states famed? Why has New York become a great commercial city? What is said of Philadelphia? For what is Baltimore noted? Name other important commercial cities.
