THE UNITED STATES--THE SEAPORTS AND THE ATLANTIC COAST-PLAIN
The United States of America together with the possessions included
within the domain of the Republic comprise an area somewhat greater than
that of Europe.
With respect to latitude, the position of the main body of the United
States is extremely fortunate. Practically all its area is situated in
the warmer half of the temperate zone. Only a small part lies beyond the
northern limit of the corn belt; wheat, oats, and barley are cultivated
successfully throughout four-fifths of its extent in latitude; grass,
and therefore cattle and sheep are grown in nearly every part. Coal,
iron, copper, gold, and silver, the minerals and metals which give to a
nation its greatest material power, exist in abundance, and the
successful working of these deposits have placed the country upon a very
high commercial plane.
Topographically the United States may be divided into the following
regions:
The Atlantic Coast-Plain,
The Appalachian Ranges and the New England Plateau,
The Basin of the Great Lakes,
The Northern Mississippi Valley Region,
The Southern Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast,
The Arid Plains,
The Plateau Region,
The Pacific Coast Lowlands.
[Illustration: A HARBOR--NEW YORK BAY, AT THE BATTERY]
The topographic and climatic features of these various regions have had
a great influence not only on the political history of the country, but
their effect has been even greater in determining its industrial
development. They have resulted in the establishment of the various
industries, each in the locality best adapted to it, instead of their
diffusion without respect to the necessary conditions of environment.
The foregoing regions are also approximately areas of fundamental
industries. Thus, the New England plateau supplies the rest of the
United States with light manufactures, such as cotton textiles, woollen
clothing, hats, shoes, cutlery, books, writing-paper, household metal
wares, etc., but sells the excess abroad. The middle and southern
Appalachians, with the coal which forms their chief resource, supply the
rest of the country with structural steel, from ores obtained in the
lake regions, and sell the excess to foreign countries.
The northern Mississippi Valley grows nearly one-fourth of the world's
wheat-crop. The wheat of this region and the Pacific coast lowlands
supplies the country with bread-stuffs, and exports the excess to
western Europe. The Gulf states, which produce three-fourths of the
world's cotton-crop, supply the whole country and about one-half the
rest of the world besides with cotton textiles. The grazing regions
produce an excess of meat for export; the western highlands furnish the
gold and silver necessary to carry on the enormous commerce.
In the last twenty years the imports of merchandise per capita varied
but little from $11.50; the exports per capita varied from about $12 to
more than $18.
=The Atlantic Coast-Plain and the Seaports.=--Throughout most of its
extent the Atlantic seaboard of the United States is bordered by a low
coast-plain. Along the northeastern coast of the United States the
coast-plain is very narrow; south of New York Bay it has a width in
some places of more than two hundred miles.
The existence of this plain has had a marked effect on the commercial
development of the country. The sinking or "drowning" of the northern
part of it has made an exceedingly indented coast. The drowned valleys,
enclosed by ridges and headlands, form the best of harbors, and nearly
all of them are northeast of New York Bay. South of New York Bay good
harbors are comparatively few. For the greater part they occur only when
old, buried river-channels permit approach to the shore.
The most important port of entry in these harbors is _New York_, and it
derives its importance from two factors. It has a very capacious harbor,
into which vessels drawing as much as thirty-five feet may enter; its
situation at the lower end of a series of valleys and passes makes it
almost a dead level route from the Mississippi to the Atlantic seaboard.
The importance of New York as the commercial gateway between European
ports and the food-producing region of the American continent began when
the Erie Canal was opened between the Great Lakes and tide-water. The
completion of the canal for the first time opened the rich farming lands
of the interior to European markets. Probably a greater tonnage of
freight is carried yearly over this route than over any other channel of
trade in the world.
Not far from two-thirds of the foreign commerce of the country passes
through the port of New York. The water-front of the city has an
aggregate length of about three hundred miles, of which one-third is
available for anchorage. The docks and piers, including those of Jersey
City and Hoboken, aggregate about ninety miles in frontage.
About sixteen thousand sea-going craft enter and clear yearly, and an
average of nearly twenty large passenger and freight steamships arrive
and clear daily, about one-half of them being foreign. The latter
receive their cargoes from about three thousand freight-cars that are
daily switched into the various freight-yards, a large part of which is
through freight from the west.
The port of entry of _New York_ is a centre of population of about four
million, and although there are the industries usually found in great
communities, the greater business enterprises practically reduce
themselves to export, import, and exchange. For this reason New York
City is the financial, as well as the commercial centre of the
continent. Most of the great industrial corporations of the country have
their head offices in the city. These are financed by more than one
hundred banks, together with a clearing-house whose yearly business
amounted in 1902 to considerably more than seventy billions of
dollars.[50]
[Illustration: BOSTON HARBOR]
_Boston_ has been one of the leading ports of the United States for
considerably more than a century. It ranks second among the ports of the
United States. Regular lines of transit connect it with the principal
ports of Great Britain and Canada. The coast trade is also very heavy.
Boston is the financial and commercial centre of New England; the
cotton, woollen, and leather goods passing through the port find their
way to nearly every inhabited part of the world. The city controls a
considerable export trade of food-stuffs from the upper Mississippi
Valley. The vessels entering and clearing at Boston indicate a movement
of about four million five hundred thousand tons, about one-fourth that
of New York. The clearing-house exchanges average about six billion
dollars yearly.
_Philadelphia_, on account of its distance inland, is not fortunately
situated for ocean commerce. Steamships of deep draught reach their
docks at the lower end of the city under their own steam, but
sailing-craft pay heavy towage fees. There are regular lines to
Liverpool, Antwerp, West Indian ports, Baltimore, and Boston.
Philadelphia is the centre of the anthracite coal trade, and this is the
chief factor of its domestic trade. The imports of fruit from the West
Indies, carpet-wool from Europe, and raw sugar from the West Indies,
form the greater part of its foreign business. The manufactures are
mainly carpets and rugs, locomotives and iron steamships, and refined
sugar. The carpet-weaving and the ship-building plants are among the
largest in the world. The ocean movement of freight is more than three
million five hundred thousand tons yearly. The business of the
clearing-house in 1902 aggregated nearly six billion dollars.
_Baltimore_ is likewise handicapped by its distance inland.
Sailing-vessels, however, require only a short towage, the docks being
scarcely a dozen miles from Chesapeake Bay. The harbor is deep and
capacious. The Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio railway systems have
made Baltimore an important railway centre. The completion of the Gould
railway system to the Atlantic seaboard has made the city second to New
York only in the export of corn, wheat, flour, and tobacco. The most
noteworthy local industry is the oyster product, which is the greatest
in the world. Nearly ten thousand people are employed, and during the
busy season--from September to the end of April--about thirty carloads
of oysters a day are shipped.
[Illustration: CHARLESTON HARBOR]
The yearly movement of marine freight, entering and clearing, aggregates
about three million tons. In 1902 the clearing-house exchanges
aggregated about two and one-quarter billion dollars.
_Portland_, Me., has good harbor facilities, but is distant from the
great lines of traffic. Steamship lines, which in summer make Montreal a
terminal point, occasionally make Portland their winter harbor. _Newport
News_, _Savannah_, _Charleston_, and _Brunswick_ are growing in
importance as clearing ports for the cotton and produce from the region
west of them. _Norfolk_ obtains importance on account of the United
States Navy-Yard; it is also the great peanut-market of the world.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What are the requisites of a good seaport?
What is meant by the draught of a vessel?
For what purposes are pilots?
How are navigable channels marked and designated?
From the Statistical Abstract find six or more of the leading exports
from each of the following ports: New York, Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, and the port nearest which you live.
FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE
Statistical Abstract of the United States.
Statesman's Year-Book.
Industrial Evolution of the United States--Chapter II.