Tacoma, WASH., the county-seat of Pierce co., 28 mi. s. of Seattle, is at the head of Commencement Bay, on Puget Sound and on the Tacoma Eastern, the Oregon & Washington and several divisions of the Northern Pacific railroads. The city has one of the finest harbors in the world and a beautiful location along the bay. The snow-capped Olympic Mountains stretch along the west, and Mount Ranier, locally known as Mount Tacoma, rises to a height of over 14,000 feet on the southeast. The Puyallup River empties into the bay here and helps to form the spacious harbor. Many steamship lines connect the city with all parts of the world, more than twenty boats making regular trips to the Orient alone. The city is near one of the richest farming regions of the Northwest, containing, also, valuable timber lands and extensive coal mines. Along the harbor are many large electrically operated coal bunkers and immense grain elevators. In the exportation of wheat, Tacoma is the second largest port on the Pacific coast; the other leading articles of trade are flour, lumber, fish and fruit. The chief manufactories are of lumber and lumber products; other large industrial plants include flour mills, foundries, car and machine shops, smelters, refineries, shipyards, and manufactories of furniture, wagons and various other articles. The city is an important educational center. Here are the University of Puget Sound, Pacific University, Washington College, Whitworth College, Vashon College, Annie Wright Seminary, Academy of Visitation and Tacoma Academy. The public high school has a manual training department; a Carnegie library and the Ferry Museum of Art are also important educational features. There are two large parks, Wright and Point Defiance, the latter containing about 660 acres. The state hospital for the insane is located a few miles southwest, and the city also contains three hospitals and an orphanage. The other important structures are the city hall, the courthouse, the chamber of commerce, the Union Club House, the Northern Pacific Railway building, the Tacoma Theater, the Tacoma Hotel and the high school. The place was settled about 1869. It was made the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1873 and was organized as a city ten years later, by the consolidation of New Tacoma and Old Tacoma. The city more than doubled its population between 1900 and 1910. Population in 1910, 83,743.