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~ es city of Philadelphia, one of the principal manyfacturing cen- ters for heavy machinery and iron and steel products, and the sec- ond seaport in the country in point of tonnage of export and import trade, is located on the Delaware river, ap- proximately 88 nautical miles from the ocean. By railroad it is situated about midway between New York and Baltimore—approximately 90 miles to the southward of the former and about the same distance to the north- ward of the latter—and is about 135 miles distant from Washington. It is the largest city in the state of Pennsylvania and the state’s only sea- port. The city. lies immediately above the junction of the Schuylkill river with the Delaware river and its central part occupies a peninsula about two miles in width between the two, a position on two deep water streams affording almost unlimited opportunity for commercial and shipping develop- ment. In extreme dimensions it meas- ures about 10 miles from east to west by 16 miles from north to south, and covers a territory of about 130 square miles, or approximately 84,000 acres. The water approach to the city is by way of the Delaware river and bay, the latter a commodious tidal estuary with natural, broad, deep water extending for 35 miles from the ocean to the entrance of the improved ship channel, from which point, a distance _ GARatyYN STEAMER CAROLYN—AN AMERICAN A Survey of the Port Facilities of the Quaker City— Many New Municipal and Private Piers Will Be Built marine commerce consist briefly of some 267 wharves of various sizes, for the accommodation of every char- Z of 53 miles to Philadelphia, the chan- nel is from 600 to 1,000 feet wide and 30 feet deep at low tide. This depth is constantly maintained by dredges of the United States government, and contract work is now under way for increasing the depth to 35 feet and the width to from 800 to 1,200 feet. This deeper and wider’ channel project, it is estimated, will be en- tirely completed in 1917, when the present satisfactory channel facilities will be greatly improved. Water Terminals are Extensive The river is excellently lighted from the sea to the mouth of the improved channel by powerful lights established in steel’ and concrete towers built along the edge of deep water in the bay, and from the entrance of the channel to the city, by gas buoys, and sets of shore range-lights located on the center lines of the various reaches of the channel, the whole forming a continuous guide to the mariner from one end of the channel to the other. More than 50 naviga- tion lights are passed between the ocean capes and the city, an average of more than one to each two miles of channel. The buoying for day use is equally extensive, and it can safely be said that no water approach to any great seaport in the world, is safer or easier of navigation than that to the port of Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s facilities for handling " ae, $. 2 “CAROLY Y ] Y acter of vessel. There are 159 project- ing piers. The waterfront terminals of three great trunk line railroads con- nect with tracks which extend over the entire American continent. Direct connection by regular lines of steam- ers sailing, in peace times, at fixed intervals, were had with London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Lieth, Hamburg, Bremen, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Copen- hagen, Genoa, Naples, Triste, Cal- cutta, the West Indies, Central Amer- ica and Panama, North Pacific and South American ports via the Isthmian canal, as well as nearly all the im- portant domestic ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Gulf of Mexico. The administration of the port is under the jurisdiction of the depart- ment of wharves, docks and ferries, a branch of the city government, and the commissioners of navigation, a state department. The department of wharves, docks and ferries has charge of the construction and operation of municipal wharves and other harbor facilities, and general supervision of all waterfront activities of either a public or private nature. The com- missioners of navigation are charged with the policing of the harbor, the anchoring and the reporting of ves- sels, etc. The functions of the two bodies are co-ordinate in character, PIONEER IN THE SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE SAILING FROM MUNICIPAL PIER NO. 38, PHILADELPHIA 264