Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1857-11-05
Pittsburgh.

have not visited the Iron City TO have
correct idea Of its locality. We will give
description of the rivers and mountains in
its vicinity.
The Monongahela. on the south side Of
the city, runs little north of west, and is
spanned, on the south side. by bridge
about 1900 feet long. On the south side
of the city. is the Allegheny river. which
runs little west of south, and is spanned
by two bridges, for teams, footmen, &c,
which are about 1900 feet long. The two
rivers unite and form the { hio.
On the south side of the Monongahcla.
the mountain is over 800 feet high. and so
steep. in many pieces. that it is difficult
for even a footman to climb to the summit;
between the mountain and the river, there
is what might be called String town; it is
from five to ten rods wide, and some two
or three miles in length; that portion lying
east of the bridge. is called Birmingham;
the first division west of the bridge. is call
ed Manchester; and the second, Sligo. In
addition to the bridge. there are four steam
ferry boas in operation, two of them ply
ing between the City and Sligo.
A great portion Of the manufacturing
establishments are located on the south
side of the river; We visited quite num-
Der of them, but our descriptive powers
are entirely inadequate TO convey anything
like an accurate idea of the manner of ma
king even six-penny nail. We spent an
hour or two in nail factory, and was lost
in wonder and amazement at the ingenuity
of man. The process, as nearly as We
could learn. of making nails was something
after this manner: In the first place, the
machinery is driven by steam; piece of
lion from two to three feet long. is heated
red hot. it is then parsed between two cast
iron rollers, which revolve with great ra-
pidity, until it is reduced to the desired
breadth and thickness; another machine is
near by, for cutting the bars the desired
length, which is from ten to twelve inches,
after which the pieces were heated again.
In the factory We were in there were twcn-
ty machines for cutting the nails, they were
placed together in two rows, the operators
sitting on STOOLS on each side, facing each
other; each had little iron box not quite
so long as the bars, into which the bars
were placed. The operator had small
pair Of tongs with which he placed them
-one at time where the nail was cut off;
the bars were as the nail was long.
When nail is cut off. the operator turns
his bar over; just as fast as he turns his
hand, that fast the nails are cut off, and
drop into a box; we examined them and
found they were finished ready for putting
were into kegs.
We visited the glass works, but as they
were not blowing. we left without being
much the wiser. The City proper is near
ly i'll the shape of the letter V, with the
lower end to the north. The depot Of the
Cen Penn. 4. r., is located nearly at the
junction of the two rivers, from there the
road runs in the middle of street to the
north end of the city, who're the space be-
tween the river and the mountain is but a
few rods. The day We left was one of
their regular market days, we spent an
hour very pleasantly in looking through the
various departments. They had two large
brick buildings with space of some sixty
feet between them, and an open space of
probably hundred feet around them. The
first story of the buildings were occupied
wholly as meat market, the upper rooms
were used for fruits, butter, &c, the space
around th, buildings were occupied with
vegetables of all descriptions; We saw no
cabbage, potatoes or apples. that would
compare f vorably with those raised in
MaFSnaii county.
The streets are all paved with stone
the walks with stone or brick. Some
thirty or forty steam vessels were lying at
anchor in the Monongahela, vessels were
arriving and departing frequently during
our stay. Stone coal is used altogether for
fuel, which causes the city to have very
dirty appearance. The streets are crowd
ed with drays and Pennsylvania Wagons.
Allegheny which is on the west side of the
river, is beautiful city, and has great
many manufacturing establishments, and
some of the most splendid private resi-
denccs that we saw during our tour. We
saw nothingso magniicently grand as those
mountains, towering three or four hundred
feet nearly perpendicular. toward the sky,
huge rocks are seen projecting from their
sides, which would make sad havoc, we're
they detached from their resting places.
We left Pittsburgh Mt e O'Clock. Wed
nesday and arrived at Wooster at o clock