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THE MarRINE. REVIEW June, 1910 a . " Tacoma Mitt Co.'s PLAantT--ONE oF THE Oxpest Mitts 1n Tacoma, EsTasiisHeD IN 1868, KNown as "Otp Town Mitt. and bare at low tide. Tacoma has ample tide lands and an_ extensive level area on the plateau from 100 to 300 feet above. in, shape, about a mile wide from The harbor is oval Point Brown to Old Tacoma, and five miles from Point Brown to Point De- At the southeast end of Com- mencement Bay, the mud flats extend These flats, original condition, were bare at low fiance. entirely across. in their -tide and covered with water at high tide. creeks and the Puyallup river, having Emptying into them are two a depth varying from a few feet to 30 or 40 feet. of waterfront, 14 miles of which are in the city limits and three and one-half outside. Of the 14 miles in the city limits, six and one-half are unoccupied. Channels and waterways are being dug through the mud flats, which will have a total of 35 miles of waterfront suitable for wharves. The south side of the bay has been built up first, being at. present the Tacoma has 1714 miles only one. Wharves and buildings are being gradually extended over across toward the north side, as the water- ways are dug out and the intervening spaces filled. The south shore has a continual line of warehouses and wharves, starting well up above the Eleventh Street bridge and extending down toward Old Tacoma. Deep water is found almost immediately below the wharves, a depth of 25 to 40 ft. obtaining along the waterfront. Out in the bay proper, a depth of 20 to 90 fathoms is common. The aver- age mean difference between high water and low water is 8.2 ft. and be- tween high tide and low tide, 14.4 ft., giving a mean average tide of from 8 to 11 ft. Being protected by bluffs, the harbor is safe at all times for ships of any size, and only in rare cases is there danger to small launches. Favored with a natural harbor of good depth, well protected, accessible and large enough to accom- modate vessels of all kinds and hav- ing the means of extensively increas- ing their building location for wharves and docks, it is in order to - three consider what has been done and what can be done to further use and develop the natural conditions. In' 1868, a small schooner, loaded with lumber from old Hansen's mill, sailed {for San Francisco. This' was the beginning of ocean commerce from Tacoma. Up to 1890 it amount- ed to very little, but in the last 15 years with the development of the west, the ocean commerce has grown to $40,657,029 in 1909. More than half the wheat and flour going to Europe leave Tacoma, the great items of export being wheat, flour and lumber. One of the largest wheat warehouses in the world, measuring 2,360 ft. in length, 147 ft. in width, with a capacity of 2,000,000 grain, is found on_ the Among the docks in the bushels of waterway. city are: Length. Capacity. Feet. Tons. Commercial dock =a... ic. s 400 15,000 Burekac dock = 6. ce cc. 400 15.000 PaamSiOll sO. She os 48 Oks 100 5,000 Teondon . dook] o.. 2c cen. 300 12,000 ING WW Warehouse Go. .0.. 6. 300 15,000 jiecB Stevens dock 2.520... 500 25,000