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HAMILTON CANADA The Visitors Hand book I ri .i.isiiKi. i;\ Tin: Assessment Commissioner s Department OF THE CITY OF HAMILTON. Any additional information not contained in this booklet may be obtained from the Assessment Com missioner, John T. Hall. i SPECTATOR PRINTING COMPANY. I.I.M 1 KH HAMILTON Bir Hamilton, Ontario, familiarly known as the mingham of Canada, covers an area of about 4,700 that lises grartu acres, and is situated upon a plain a beautiful ally from the shores of Hamilton Bay, On land-locked harbor at the western end of Lake tario. Tradition informs us that the first white man to set who foot on the land was La Salle and his voyageurs, when explored the head of Lake Ontario in 1669, and in everything was forest in all its primeval glory red man. the undisturbed possession of the aboriginal the name of About the first authentic record gives us Robert Land, under date of 1778. locating in Hamilton. of Ontario The life of the early settlers in this part must have been full of hardship and the toil required to reclaim the land tested to the utmost the energy the of the first U. K Loyalist settlers, and also hardy H sons of England, Ireland and Scotland, who left their native lands and emigrated to the new world of which so little was known at that time. The city is situated forty- two miles west of the celebrate.! Falls of Niagara, and lies nestling at the foot of the escarpment over which the Falls of Nia gara plunges. From the summit of the escarpment, or mountain, as it is generally called, a magnificent view is to be had. The city lies immediately below, the squares in the centre are as distinct as those of a chess board, and the foliage of the majestic maples, with which so many of the streets are lined, make a veritable ilower garden lying immediately at your feet. In sta.iding there looking from west to east, one is struck very forcibly with the surprising beauty of the scenery in the immediate neighborhood of Hamilton. At your feet, extending from Beasley s Hollow in the west to the Delta on the east, a dis tance of over five miles, and in width from the moun tain to the bay, two miles, lies the city in all its beauty, with its wide regularly laid out and well paved streets, its fine residences and public buildings, and its wealth of beautiful shade trees. To the north of the clear waters of fie bay are the green banks of Oaklands, with the blue heights of Flamboro Head for a background. To the west is a bird s eye vi-w of the surrounding country. Looking up through th~ Dundas valley is the town of that name nestlh;;j L, the green vale and forest covered heights. Turning your vision towards the north you look over the bay to the blue and placid waters of Lake Ontario, while s. -parating lake and bay is Burlington Beach, Hamil ton s I avorite summer resort, or, as one writer re " cently and very aptly put it. Glistening and gleam ing in the sunlight like a ribbon of burnished gold." It is a little over five miles in length, and stretches across the east end of the bay from shore to shor . It has a varied width of about three hundred feet, am. is intersected only by the Hamilton Canal, which atVords an entrance for the largest lake going vessels. Over this canal the firand Trunk Railway have erected a new swing bridge, which is one of the larg est, if not the largest, single span swing bridges in the world, being nearly 400 feet in length and weighing more than one hundred thousand tons, just double the weight of the one it superseded. The Hamilton Radial and Electric Railway use an electric swing bridge, which also accommodates vehicles and foot passengers. To the north end of the Beach you turn into the pretty village of Burlington, which is also a favorite resort for the citizens of Hamilton during the heated months of summer. Al lowing your eye to wander towards the east, there is straight before you a panoramic view greeting the eye, seldom equalled and certainly not surpassed by any other view on the American continent. Fields of green and gold like tesselated pavement, broken here and there by stretches of woodland, and in the distance the blue waters of Lake Ontario forms a symmetrical frame for so beautiful a picture. CEN I KAI. MARKET HAMILTON OF TODAY It is not our intention to trace in detail the gradual development of the city since its incorpora tion in the year 1847, but rather to give the reader some distinct idea of what the City of Hamilton Is to day as a manufacturing, commercial and educational centre, and as a desirable place for the safe and profitable investment of capital and at the same time a delightful place to live in. Hamilton has always been noted for its mild and even climate, it being several hundred miles south of London, England, and Paris, Prance, and a little east of the 80th degree of longitude and north of the 43rd parellel of latitude. The cleanness of its streets (its present sewage sys tem being almost perfect, the gradual slope towards the bay making the task very easy), large trunk sewers being used from the mountain to the bay, and the smaller sewers running from east to west con nected with the larger sewers and emptying into the Disposal Works. There are about sixty miles of sewers in the city flowing- into the two Sewage Dis posal Works, situated on the bay shore, where it goes through a process of chemical precipitation, alum and lime being used for this purpose, all the solids re moved and the affluent turned into the bay as clear as filtered water. The writer believes that these are the only works of the kind in the Dominion now in operation. They have been working for about six years and have contributed a great deal towards keeping the bay free from objectionable matter and its water as pure as that of a mountain spring. The cost entailed in the establishment of these works was about $100.000, and the annual cost for maintaining and operating the same approximate $18.000. The waterworks system is owned and operated by the municipality, and quite a large revenue is derived from this source. The pumping station and filtering basins are at the Beach, about six miles east of the city. There are at present two reservoirs, and another large reservoir is about to be constructed at the head of James street. The water is pumped into the city through three large mains, 20 inch. 24 inch and 30 inch respectively in diameter. The pumping capacity of the plant is about fifteen million gallons per twenty- four hours, and there is laid throughout the city about one hundred and ten miles of water mains. The total cost of installing this plant was about two million dollars. o o PAVEMENTS. The Works Department of the City of Ham ilton has solved a question that is perplexing a great many American cities, viz., pavements, and in the tar macadam, which is now being laid on many of the principal streets, they have a pavement almost equal to that of Bermuda asphalt at about one-fifth the cost, and almost every week large delegations from Ameri can cities come to inspect it and always return feeling satisfied that the Hamilton pavement in quality and price is the pavement of the future. There was also laid in Hamilton during the year 1902 about thirty- five miles of cement sidewalks, and in 1903, 22 miles, there being in all about sixty miles of these walks in the city. FOUNDATION FOR TAR M U ADAM MODE OF CONSTRUCTION OF TAR- MACADAM ROADWAYS. The sub grade was first rolled with u ir>-tun roller, and any soft spots revealed were filled up and rolled until the whole surface had been worked to the proper grade and cross section, cure being taken to keep the sub grade as also each succeeding layer of material parallel with the finished cross section of the roadway. The bottom course or atone foundation six Inches In depth was next put in place. This consisted of stone varying from 6 inches to 12 inches laid roughly by hand on their natural or Hat beds, after which stones of a. smaller size were put on top and broken roughly in place, so that all the larger voids in the foundation stones were filled. This course was then rolled similar to the sub grade, care being- taken as before stated to keep the cross section true. The broken stone was now brought to the work and the process of tarring was gone through us fol lows : Tar kettles, in which the tin- was kept at the workable temperature and consistency, were placed conveniently to mixing boards similar to those used in mixing concrete. TARRING STONE The stone to be tarred was placed on the board, and the tar applied to the stone by scattering with a swinging motion from a dipper fastened to a wooden handle of a convenient length to reach well down in the tar kettle. After the first application of Inr the pile of stone was turned over twice by shovelling-, the shovels be ing kept hot to facilitate the process.