ISGO.. 1870. 1850.

Number ments of establishNumber of hands 7,396 11,589 21,937 Capital invested $5,023,491 $11,129,291 $20,864,449 Wages paid 2,120,179 4,464,040 5,765,387 Value of material 7,896,891 10,369,556 22,362,704 Value of product 14,135,517 20,364,650 35,908,338 The Louisville and Nashville Railway, opened in 1859, controls, under one management, nearly 4000 miles of connected lines, reaching New Orleans, Pensacola, and Savannah. Various other lines contribute to make Louisville an important railway centre.

A bridge across the river, 52183 feet long between abutments, with twenty-seven spans, and admitting the free passage of steamboats at high water, affords continuous railway transit, and connects the city with the thriving towns of New Albany (population 16,423) and Jeffersonville (population 9357), situated on the opposite bank of the Ohio, in the State of Indiana. A second railway bridge, having waggon-ways and foot-ways in addition, is now (1882) building.

Louisville is provided with adequate water-works, gas= works, 47c. The famous Dupont artesian well, 2066 feet deep, has a flow of 330,000 gallons per day, with a force of ten horse-power, its water resembling slightly that of the Kissengen and Blue Lick (Icy.) springs. Although once regarded as unhealthy, the city has now an effective system of sewerage, and is in good sanitary condition.

The public school system is sustained at an annual expense of over $300,000, abundant separate provision being made for coloured children. There are four medical colleges, having a large attendance and reputation, and numerous private seminaries and schools. Among the newspapers published at Louisville the Courier Journal deserves mention both for its early connexion with George D. Prentice, and as a leading representative of the best order of American journalism. There are four other dailies (two English and two German), besides thirteen weekly sheets.

Louisville is a port of entry for foreign imports, which aggregate annually about $125,000. The city is governed by a mayor, elected every third year, with a board of aldermen and a common council, the former containing one, and the latter two representatives of each of the twelve wards. The population in 1830 was 10,341 ; in 1840, 21,210 ; in 1850, 43,196; in 1860, 68,033; in 1870, 100,753; and in 1880 it was 123,758. This last total includes 20,905 persons of colour and 23,156 foreigners, the larger proportion of the latter being Germans.

It was in 1778 that Colonel George Rogers Clarke, on his way-down the Ohio, left a company of settlers who took possession of Corn Island (no longer existing), near the Kentucky shore above the falls ; and in the following year the first rude cluster of cabins appeared on the site of the present city. An Act of the Virginian legislature in 1780 gave the little settlement the rank of a town, and called it Louisville in honour of Louis XVI. of France, then assisting the American colonies in their struggle for independence. The rank of city was conferred by the Kentucky legislature in 1828.