Download Portland Its Representative Business Men and Its Points of Interest Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle
Excerpt from Portland Its Representative Business Men and Its Points of Interest The most important dates in the history of Portland are 1632, when the first settlement was made within the present city limits; 1786, when the town of Portland was incorporated; and 1832, when a city charter was granted. Some idea of the courage and persistency of those who have made Portland what she is, is afforded by the fact that the first two periods in her history close with the total destruction of the town, - first, by the Indians in 1690, and, second, by the English naval officer, Mowatt, in 1775. Add to this the havoc wrought by the great fire of 1866 - a fire which destroyed fifteen hundred buildings and ten millions of property, and rendered ten thousand people homeless - and it becomes evident that the wealth and prosperity of the present Portland cannot rightly be attributed to good fortune, but rather to the industry, determination, and business ability of her citizens. The advantages of location possessed by the city are in some respects so obvious that they cannot be questioned by even the most prejudiced. For instance: it is undeniable that Portland is half a day's sail nearer England than any other port in the United States. Now this is a very important advantage, and its importance is increased many fold by the fact that Portland lies at the eastern extremity of the shortest line of rail to the Pacific coast. A gazetteer published at as early a date in the history of steam-boating as 1850, says: "The harbor is one of the best on the Atlantic coast, the anchorage being protected on every side by land, the communication with the ocean easy and direct, and the depth sufficient for the largest ships. Although in a northern latitude, it is never closed by ice except in the most extreme cold weather, and then only for a few days." To the powerful steamers of the present day it is never closed, broad channels, navigable for every variety of vessel, being kept open even in the severest weather, and it is the simple truth that the wharves of Portland are more easily reached from the ocean at all times of year than those of Boston or of New York. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.