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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GEO-GNU |
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GMINNEAPOLIS , the largest city of Minnesota, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Hennepin county, situated on both banks of the Mississippi river at the Falls of St Anthony and immediately above St Paul. Pop. (1870), 13,066; (188o), 46,887; (189o), 164,738; (1900), 202,718; (1910 census) 301,408. Of the total population in 1900, those of foreign parentage (both parents foreign-born) numbered 118,946, and there were 61,o21 of foreign birth, including 20,035 Swedes, 11,532 Norwegians, 7335 Germans, 5637 English-Canadians, 3213 Irish, 2289 English, 1929 Russians, 17o6 French-Canadians and 1133 Austrians. Minneapolis is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Great Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Great Northern, the Minneapolis & St Louis, the Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault Sainte Marie, and the Northern Pacific railways. It has also three terminal switching lines and the belt line of the Minnesota Transfer Company, serving both Minneapolis and St Paul. With St Paul, which is served by the same system of railways, Minneapolis is the chief
The city is situated on a high plateau (800-85o ft. above sea-level) above the river, and covers an area of about 53 sq. m. It has an extensive system of boulevards, parkways and parks (aggregating 2465 acres in 1908). Among the parks are Loring, near the centre of the city, in which is a statue of Ole Bull; Lyndale, in the south-west part of the city; Interlachen, just north-west of Lyndale; Glenwood, in the west of the city; Van Cleve, Logan, Windom and Columbia in the part of the city east of the Mississippi river; Riverside, on the south-west bank of the Mississippi; and Minnehaha Park, in which are the Minnehaha Falls, a beautiful cascade of the Minnehaha Creek (the out-let of Lake Minnetonka), near the Mississippi, with a fall of 50 ft., well known from Longfellow's poem " Hiawatha." The numerous small lakes in the city (there are about Zoo lakes in Hennepin county) have been incorporated in the park system; among them are Lake Harriet (353 acres; in Lake Harriet Park), Lake Calhoun (on which are extensive public baths), Lake Amelia (295 acres), Lake of the Isles (too acres), Cedar
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The Mississippi river, which here has an average width of about 1200 ft., is crossed by 17 bridges (9 highway and 8 railway bridges). The Federal government undertook to deepen the channel by dredging and by making two dams and two locks between the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha railway bridge in St Paul and the Washington Avenue bridge in Minneapolisa distance of 11.4 m.from 2 or 3 ft. to 6 ft., and to make the river regularly navigable as far as the Washington Avenue bridge, Minneapolis; the project, first adopted in 1894 and modified in 1907, was 70% completed in July 1908, and up to that time $1,061,397 had been spent on the work. The enormous water-power of the Falls of St Anthony, yielding about 40,000 h.p., has been the principal factor in making Minneapolis a great manufacturing centre. The rapid erosion of the soft limestone bed at one time threatened the destruction of the power, but this has been prevented by an enormous apron and an artificial concrete floor (completed in 1879). Additional water-power (25,000 h.p.) is derived from Taylor's Falls on the St Croix river. The proximity of the rich wheatfields of the north-west, and the extensive timber forests, have made Minneapolis the greatest lumber and flour centre in the world. The importance of the flour manufacturing industry was originally due to the excellent water-power available, and dates from the introduction of improved roller-mill methods in the early 'seventies, although there were successful mills in operation twenty years earlier. The enormous flour-mills of Minneapolis (22 in 1907) are perhaps the most interesting sights of the city. Their aggregate daily capacity is over 8o,000 barrels, the largest of them having a capacity of 15,000 to 16,500 daily. In 1905 the value of the city's flour and grist mill products was $62,754,446, 51.6 % of the total value of the city's factory product, and 8.8 % of the value of the flour and grist mill products of the entire United States. Food preparations were valued in 1905 at $1,361,492. Minneapolis is also the greatest primary wheat market in the world, its 40 or more elevators (of which those of the Washburn-Crosby Company, erected in 1907, are the largest) having a net capacity of about 35,000,000 bushels, and handling more than 90,000,000 bushels in 1908. Its commerce in other grains is also extensive; in the amount of barley received and shipped Minneapolis surpasses any other city in the United States, and in receipts and shipments of rye is second only to Chicago. The Mississippi river above Minneapolis is made to serve, by means of a series of extensive log-booms, as the principal source of supply to the great saw-mills, of which there are here some of the largest in the world, with a combined capacity of 3,500,000 ft. a day, and with an average annual cut of 575,000,000 ft. The total value of the lumber products in 1905 was $9,960,842 (lumber and timber, $5,816,726; planing-mill products, including sash, doors and blinds, $4,144,116). Other important manufactures with the product-value of each in 1905 were malt liquors ($1,185,525), foundry and machine shop products ($2,820,697), structural iron-work ($1,991,771), steam railway car construction and repairing ($2,027,248), patent medicines ($1,715,889), furniture ($1,238,324), cooperage ($1,415,360), and hosiery and knit goods ($957455) The total value of the factory product was $94,407,774 in 1900, and $121,593,120 in 1905, an increase of 28.8 %; in 1905 the value of the factory product was 39'5 % of that of the entire state. Minneapolis is governed under a charter adopted in 1872 (when St Anthony and Minneapolis were consolidated) and frequently amended. It provides for the election of a mayor, treasurer and comptroller for two-years terms; for elected boards of control for library, parks and education, and for a unicameral city council, half of which is chosen every two years for a term of four years. The mayor, whose veto may be nullified by an adverse vote of two-thirds of the council, has very limited appointing powers, the head of the police department being the most important of his appointees. The city council elects the city clerk, city attorney, city engineer, chief
History.The first recorded visit of a European to the site of Minneapolis was that of Father Louis Hennepin, the French Jesuit missionary, who discovered and named the Falls of St Anthony in 1680; but it is almost certain that he was preceded by some of the adventurous coureurs des boil, few of whom left records of their extensive wanderings, and Radisson and Groseilliers seem to have visited this region two decades before Hennepin. The land on which the city lies, being divided by the Mississippi river, was for many years under different sovereignties, the east side becoming United States territory at the close of the War of Independence, while the west side, after being under Spanish and French rule, did not become a part of the United States until the purchase of Louisiana in 1803. In 1766 the site was visited by the American traveller, Jonathan Carver, 1and in 1805 by Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike; the military reserve which Pike bought from the Indians included a greater portion of the west side of the present city. After the erection of Fort St Anthony (1819; later called Fort Snelling), a water-power saw-mill was erected (1822) to saw lumber for the fort on the east bank of the river at the Falls of St Anthony. Later flour was also ground in this mill, which thus became the forerunner of the greatest of the city's industries. Gradually as the Indian land titles became extinguished the east bank was settled. The first settlement on the west bank was made by Colonel John H. Stevens in 1850, but the land was not opened to settlers until 1855. The village
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