Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1860-04-27
THE GAZETTE.
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 27, 1850.
TIE CITY OF CHARLESTON.

TIE CITY OF CHARLESTON.
An eminent southern writer has thus
described the entrance to the port OF Char
lesion: ah9
AS YOU enter from the sea, between the
Islands of Sullivan and Morris, the city opens
before you in the foreground, i've miles ans
tant, rising, like another Venice from 'he
ocean. tits built, like Venice, upon mats anu
shoals of sand and mud. SO low Is the iano'
that the Illusion that it is built directly IN
the sea. continues till you approach quite near
it.. The illusion is productive OF pictures
que effect. bur not sufficient to compensate
Won for, the relief which would be yielded
nv an elevated background, or by lofty emf
nences OF land on either side. As you adj
vance. the bay expands, wide and majestic,
forming a harborage to which there can be
no objection, were ID not for the embarrass-
mepts of the bar at the entrance, which Tor
bids the admission of ships OF very heavy
draugbt of water. 1t is a present project
with the Charlestonians-supposed to be
quite feasable-so to dredge this channel as
to remove every difficulty. In that event,
Charleston must necessarily acquire large
and imposing commercial marine OF her own.
In front of YOU, commanding the channel, is
Fort Sumter, a formidable pile of fortress,
with double tier of heavy cannon, rising upon
a mole at the head Of sandbar.
In passing Sullivan Island the eye readily
distinguishes the Moultrie House, famous as
local watering place, and the still more ia
nous fortress, which also bears the name OF
Moultrie, distinguished in American history
as the scene of one of the first and best fought
battles of the Revolution, when few hun
dred native rifemen, who had never fired
cannon before, beat off and nearly destroyed
formidable British feet, making such
slaughter among them as, n proportion to
the numbers engaged, was not even reached
by that of Trafalgar and the Nile On the
right you see Haddrill's-Mt. Pleasant will
ase-which also constituted one of the fort
resses of '76. Ga the left are the shores OF
James and Morris islands-the latter bear
ing the lighthouse of the port; the former
the site of old Fort johnson, which was
wrested from the British, prior to the battle
of Fort Moultrie, by the enterprise ola small
body of citizen soldiery. Here, at the very
portals of the city, you encounter Castle
Pinckney, covering an ancient mud rect;
and here we propose to give you bird s-eye
view of the city. We are now in the ancient
city itself the Palmetto city! You see the
tout ensemble at glance and perceive its two
most prominent characteristics-the veran-
das, balconies, piazzas, with the ample gar
dens and their foliage, which isolate every
dwelling house, and form q substitute for
public squares, in which Charleston is la
mentally deficient. But for the largeness
OF the several lots, and the taste of the people
for shade trees. the deficiency would be fatal
at once to the health and the beauty of the
place. III. . -ai
This city is one of many beauties, arisin 6
from this isolation of the dwellings, and from
the ample verdure which girdles them.