Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/485

* LONDON. 427 LONDON. transit is thus afl'onk-d to every part of the business and mauulacturing districts. It is tliieriy due to these lacilities for rapidly reach- ing the business centres that Loudon lias been able to spread itself far over the surrounding country, to the great advantage of i)ublic healtlf. The result is that most of the people live in houses only two to five stories in height, in- stead of being packed together in buildings of great altitude, as in some other cities. .Street cars or trams do an enormous business, chietly in the outlying districts. The Thames has also been a great means of communication between the East and West of the city, though the service of the river i)assenger boats is declining. Four tun- nels imder the Thames — the Thames, Blackwall, and Greenwich tunnels, and the Tower .Subwav — form continuous street^ between North and South London. The Rotherhithe tunnel is under con- struction in 1903. Among the bridges proceeding from East to West are the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Charing Cross Bridge. Westminster Bridge, Lam- beth Bridge, Vauxhall Bridge, Chelsea Bridge, Albert Bridge, and Battersea Bridge, The Pobt. The port extends from London Bridge to the Xore Lightship in the estuary. 50 miles. The dockage facilities are now embraced hetween the Tower Bridge, at the Tower "of Lon- don, and Tilbury Docks. 3.5 miles down the river. Previous to the nineteenth century the business of the port was carried on under many disadvantages. Small sailing vessels were tied up near the shore, and the larger ones were an- chored in the stream. Lighters carried the car- goes between the quays and the shipping. The manipulation of freight was under difficult con- ditions. The best wharfage facilities were pro- vided by the so-called Legal wharves, between London Bridge and the Tower, private property, whose owners charged exorbitant rates. Vessel- owners and merchants were not able to free them- selves from this monopoly or to secure authority to provide accommodations for themselves along the river till the last .vear of the eighteenth cen- tury, when the first of the artificial basins, the West India Docks, was built ; this great im- provement was soon followed by others, and the present dock system was rapidly developed. Host of the docks extend along the river-front on the promontories formed on the north and south shores by the winding course of the river be- tween Tower Bridge and Woolwich. They are great artificial basins excavated a short distance back of the river, with which they are connected by deep and broad channels. The mightiest of steamships as well as numerous smaller vessels are moored at these docks. The word has come to mean in London not only an artificial basin, but also great warehouses on or adjoining {he docks, and large railroad and wagon facilities for the receipt or removal of freight. The principal docks on the north bank of the Thames are the West India docks (300 acres), the Millwall docks (100 acres), the East India docks (27 acres), the London docks (120 acres), the Victoria and Albert docks, nearly three miles in length, and <3.5 miles down the river) the Tilbury docks. The great docks of the south bank of the Thames are the Surrey and Conunercial docks (3.50 acres). The Tilbury docks, opened in 188(3. are not as large as some of the others, having a water area of only 55 acres, but having been built Vol. XII. -28. later than the other great docks, have some im- proved facilities. Freight-cars load and un- load at the ship's side; and a vessel unloade<i at one of the import docks needs only to lje moored on the other side of the same dock to be loaded at an export dock. The London docks have many conveniences. Some of them have re- refrigerated cellars for the tem[jorary storage of frozen-meat imports. The fact thai most of the shipping business of the port is carried on in these interior basins deprives the river-front of much of its former appearance of activity. Pas- sengers on the Thames boats may steam down the river from the Tower and see very few sea vessels excepting those that are passing'up or down the river. The large number of vessels in the docks where thou.sands of men are loading or discharg- ing cargoes are hidden from -view by the build- ings along the banks. The largest vessels in the ocean trade are able to pass between the sea and the docks only at high tide, though enormous .sums have been expended in deepening the river for modern shipping. The channel up to Tiibury is 25 to 20 feet deep at low water. In recent years there has been a growing demand for further deepening of the river and the providing of other improvements. The number of ships visiting the port is increasing, chiefly on account of the enormous local market for products that London provides. The result is that port charges are very expensive and vessels are delayed in the transaction of their port business. Merchants complain that the shipping trade is being driven to other ports. The problem of increased facili- ties is receiving much attention from the Oov- ernment. The enormous coasting trade tributarj- to London, double that of Liverpool, contributes to make the port the busiest in the world. On an average a vessel arrives in the port of London every ten minutes. Commerce. The value of the total foreign trade of London has amounted for vears past to considerably over $1,000,000,000 a vear. In 1900 it was about .$1,300,000,000. The a'verage annual tonnage of over-sea shipping amoimts to more than 10.000.000 tons a year. The tonnage of the over-sea vessels entering and clearing in 1900 was 10.700.727 tons. In recent years Lon- don, while practically holding its own in the amount of" home products exported or com- modities imported for domestic C(msuniption, has lost a considerable part of its forwarding trade. The reason is chiefly because Hamburg. Rotter- dam, Antwerp. Bremen, and Amsterdam, in the covirse of the large development of their shipping trade within the past fifteen years, have estab- lished many connections with foreign ports that they formerly did not possess ; consequently, they do not now rely so much upon London for a part of their over-sea transportation, London, how- ever, is still more thoroughly connected by direct lines of commtmication with all quarters of the globe than any other port in the world : and its business is greatly augmented by the fact that its coasting trade with the other ports of C?rcat Britain is about equal to that of all the other ports together. Three-fourths of the great aggregate of Lon- don's over-sea trade is imports, the exports being comparatively small. There are several reasons for this disparity between the import and the export trade. In the first place. London is the largest nucleus for the consumption of food-sup-