Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/388

 380 EASTPORT EAST SAGINAW rolling mill, and the machine shops of the Lehigh Valley railroad. Easton is the seat of Lafayette college (Presbyterian), organized in 1831, which in 1872 had 25 professors and in- structors, 259 students, and a library of 9,000 volumes. A scientific department was organ- ized in 1865. There are 35 public schools, with 90 teachers. The Easton library associa- tion has 6,000 volumes. There are 2 daily and 4 weekly newspapers, a free reading room, and 14 churches. The borough was laid out in 1738 and incorporated in 1789. The Six Nations and seven other Indian tribes met here in council in 1758 with the governors of Penn- sylvania and New Jersey and Sir William John- ston. Gen. Washington made it in the revo- lution a rendezvous for numbers of British prisoners. EASTPORT, a town of Washington co., Maine, and the port of entry of Passamaquoddy dis- trict, situated on the boundary line between the United States and New Brunswick, about 90 m. E. of Bangor ; pop. in 1870, 3,736. Its area is little more than 3 sq. m., comprising Moose island and several smaller islands in Passamaquoddy bay. It was incorporated in 1798. The village is compactly built on the S. E. shore of Moose island, and communicates with the mainland by a covered bridge 1,200 ft. long to Perry, and by ferries to Lubec and other places. The town has a spacious harbor, in which the tides rise more than 25 ft., and which is never blocked up by ice. In the season of navigation regular lines of steamers run up the river St. Croix to St. Andrew's and Calais, and also to Boston, Portland, and St. John, N. B. The harbor is defended by Fort Sullivan, which stands on a hill in the midst of the village. The custom house is a fine building of brick and stone, erected in 1850 at a cost of $36,500. The trade with the neigh- boring British provinces is large, and lumber is exported in considerable quantities. East- port is also the seat of a considerable fishing business. Large quantities of herring are taken in weirs about the shores of the bay. The value of imports from foreign countries for the year ending June 30, 1872, was $933,536; ex- ports to foreign ports, $1,036,350. The town contains a national bank, a savings institution, a fire insurance company, a weekly newspa- per, six school houses, which have an average attendance of about 450 pupils, and seven churches. Eastport was captured by a British force July 11, 1814. It was claimed as in- cluded in the original limits of the province of New Brunswick, and the British commis- sioners at Ghent refused to agree to the sur- render of the island in Passamaquoddy bay. The matter was referred to another commis- sion, and on June 30, 1818, the place was surrendered to the United States. During the four years of military occupation it was gov- erned by martial law. EAST RIVER, a strait connecting New York bay with Long Island sound, about 18 m. long, and between New York and Brooklyn about three fourths of a mile wide. It leaves the sound at a point called Throg's neck, where there is a lighthouse with a fixed light, and where Fort Schuyler defends the N. E. ap- proach to New York; and it enters the bay S. E. of Manhattan island, between the me- tropolis and Brooklyn. It also communi- cates with the Hudson by a narrow channel called Harlem river and Spuyten Duy vel creek, which separate Manhattan island from the mainland. It has a rapid current caused by the tide from the Atlantic, which, gather- ing force as it flows W. into the narrowest part of the sound, reaches its greatest height in the East river, arrives at New York three quarters of an hour earlier than that which rises in the bay, and drives upward along the E. shore of the Hudson many miles in advance of the tide on the W. shore. The East river is navigable by vessels of the largest size, and is crossed by numerous steam ferries. It con- tains several islands, and has a pass called Hellgate, 7 m. from New York bay, the navi- gation of which is attended with considerable danger ; but extensive blasting operations are now (1874) in progress at the expense of the United States government to remove all the obstacles to navigation. (See BLASTING.) EAST RIVER BRIDGE. See BRIDGE, and BROOKLYN". EAST SAGINAW, a city of Saginaw co., Mich- igan, on the E. bank of Saginaw river, about 16 m. above the bay of the same name, oppo- site and a little below the city of Saginaw, 57 m. N. N. E. of Lansing, and 90 m. N. N. W. of Detroit; pop. in 1860, 3,001; in 1870, 11,350, of whom 5,066 were foreigners. The city extends along the river, nearly N. and S., about 3 m., and is built up for about a mile back. The business portions are constructed chiefly of brick, and several of the schools and churches are handsome edifices. Three swing bridges cross the Saginaw at this point, and there are two street railroads. The Flint and Pere Marquette railroad passes through the city, from which radiate a branch to Bay City and another (in progress) to Caro, Tuscola co. It is also the terminus of the Saginaw Val- ley and St. Louis railroad, while the Jackson, Lansing, and Saginaw line runs along the op- posite bank of the river. It is the principal depot of the lumber and salt trade of the Saginaw valley, and is largely engaged in fur- nishing provisions and supplies to the lumbei regions in the vicinity. It contains 5 foun defies and machine shops, 2 boiler shops, 5 sai mills, a shingle and stave mill, and 4 salt man- ufactories, producing 102,752 barrels of salt in 1872. There are also several shingle and saw mills on the opposite side of the river. The car and repair shops of the Flint and Pere Marquette railroad employ about 500 men. There are 3 national banks, with an aggregate capital of $500,000, and a savings bank, with $100,000 capital. The city is divided into six