Bangor, Maine, USA
1895 - Bangor

Bangor, a city and port of entry, the capital of Penobscot co., Me., is pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Penobscot River, at the mouth of the Kenduskeag, about 60 miles from the ocean. By railroad it is 73 miles N.E. of Augusta, 138 miles N.E. of Portland, and 246 miles from Boston. Lat. 44° 48' N.; lon. 68° 47' W. It is on the Maine Central Railroad, and is the W. terminus of the European & North American Railway, which connects it with t. John in New Brunswick, and is also the N. terminus of the Bucksport & Bangor Railroad, the S.E. terminus of the Piscataquis Railroad, and the N.W. terminus of the Bangor and Bar Harbor Railroad. A bridge, about 1300 feet long, crossing the Penobscot River, connects Bangor with Brewer. Bangor is the third city in the state in population, being exceeded only by Portland and Lewiston. It is one of the greatest depots of lumber in the United States. It is the head of navigation on the Penobscot River, which traverses extensive forests of pine, cedar, spruce, and hemlock. Large steamboats and ships can ascend the river to this place, where the tide rises 17 feet. The Kenduskeag River here affords abundant water-power, which is employed in numerous mills. Bangor contains a granite custom house, which cost $201,755, 5 national banks, 2 savings banks, 19 churches, a high school, 2 daily and 3 weekly newspapers, first-class hotels, 4 foundries with machine shops, 4 furniture-factories, several steam planing-mills, and 3 boot- and shoe-manufactories. This city is the seat of the Bangor Theological Seminary (Congregational), which was founded in 1820 and has an endowment of $170,000 and a library of 13,000 volumes. Nearly 2000 cargoes of lumber are shipped here during the season of navigation. The average quantity of lumber exported in a year is about 200,000,000 feet. Bangor is also engaged in foreign commerce, the coast-trade, and ship-building. About 75 vessels, principally American, clear from Bangor for foreign ports annually, and about 250 vessels engaged in the coast trade, nearly one-half of which are steamers, enter this port. The number of vessels enrolled, registered, and licensed here is about 200, with a tonnage of over 30,000. A dam built across the Penobscot, just above the city, furnishes water for the Holly system of water-works which supplies the city, and also for the great motive-power of its mills. These works and the dam cost $500,000. Pop. in 1840, 8627; in 1850, 14,432; in 1860, 16,407; in 1870, 18,289; in 1880, 16,856; in 1890, 19,103.

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

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