Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-04-13
ALEXANDRIA, VA.
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 1872.

There must be in the country very much
capital seeking lucrative investment In manu-
f.ctu and it would be we'll if especial atten-
ZION could be drawn to the signal advantages
which Alexandria offers for such investments.
There is, perhaps no city in the country so well
supplied with all the essentials and convent
cnces for manufacturing industry, where sites,
and, 10 some cases, the buildings necessary for
such pursuits can be obtained at SO little cost.
Certainly there has never been community
more anxious to see its resources in this partic-
u!ar developed, or one in which all legal and
proper public inducements will be more libe-
rally offered for this end. There is no branch
Of the mechanical arts for which the city does
not possess signal advantages; advantages pat
ent at once when attention has been directed
towards them. As an illustration, but not one
more to the purpose than many others that
could be named, the shipwright will find here
sites for his business ample for the widest ex-
pansion of operations, surrounded by convent
ences that many of the largest cities in the
Union do not possess. Located just between
lines of railroads that reach all parts of the
country, and broad, deep river, as fitted as
any in the world for shipping, with every con-
vcnience of access or supply by land at one
door, and all possible water facilities for the
work, at the other, there stretches on each side
of the town belt. that in many cities of the
Union would be held at princely figures, but
here it may be leased or purchased at rate
that might dispose even the least sanguine
capitalist to invest Upon this belt there are
few locations already in use as ship yards,
and a number of others at which wharves have
been built, that with little expense can
lie made available for ship-yards. Added to
this, there is in the immediate vicinity of that
portion of the belt north Of the town canal,
one Of the longest in the Union, available for
heavy supplies at very low rates of transporta
ton. Of the two essentials Of all manutactur-
ing work-the air and water of industrial life
coal and iron, Alexandria is already main de-
pot of coal, and very little development Of
the country adjacent to its railroad lines will
make it depot, also. for iron. The Cumber-
land (bituminous) coal is already here, and the
Pennsylvania Central connexions promise to
deliver Anthracite in this city at rate scarcely
exceeding that at which it may be purchased
in Philadelp hia-Senator Cameron declared a
few days since, in the Senate, that the Penn
Sylyania Anthracite coal could be delivered here
by the new railroad at five dollars per ton. Of
the other essential element of ship building
timber-the banks of the Potomac furnishes a
supply so abundant that many of the large
ship yards of the country draw hence their sup
plies, and not little of the export trade of the
town,since the war, has consisted in the sending
Of Potomac ship timber to France and England
Added to this, it may be said tina, never has
raw labor been more abundant or easily obtain
able for the rude branches of the mechanic arts
than at this time about Alexandria; and it is
fact we'll known to our older citizens that the
colored race seem to acquire a skill in some
portions of the ship. wrght's craft with great
ease. Not few of the good workmen of the
ship yards formerly conducted here, were col
ored men, asssidious and capable in their en-
ployment, land respected by all who knew them.
This species of labor may here be turned to the
best account Nor have these advantages al
ways been overlooked. During the war of the
Revolution many of the vessels of the Continent.
al navy we're built here, and the ship building
interest was always leading one, but the cap
ture of many of our vessels in the war with
France in 1898, and the embargo of 1909, which
t.olk ln~ 80 / - L.
wharves for the British to capture and burn in
1914, were blows of giant struck upon an
infant shipping interest, and from them the
town never fully recovered; but even at late
period our ship yards were busy, surviving by
many years the effects of circumstances that
Frustrated most of our manufacturing interests
Even young men remember the ships built
here. The survival Of this branch of business
even when other trades were PROSTATE, is sig
nal Illustration of the especial aptitude of the
situation Of Alexandria for the business
Even up to the late war the business survived,
but at the shock of arms it persisted with the
rest of our industries, and has been but little
restored. Alexandria is city abundantly fur
nished with all the couyeniences of social life.
Our supply of water is abundant; gas is fur
nished at moderate rates; the streets are
lighted; there are churches of all denomina
tions; the excellence of the private schools of
the city has long attracted students from abroad,
and there is in operation system of public free
schools most useful now, and promising wide
expansion; in fine, in all that tends to make
life pleasant, BY furnishing it with the number
less convenencies that makes city attractive,
and our rate of mortality, as shown by the late
census, is less than that of any city on the At
lantic slope. These advantages must attract at
tention as soon as it is fairly directed to them
During the present session of the U. S. Cir
cut Court, in Richmond, four appeals have