12/27/2023 0 Comments 1904 spanish broomThe opening of the railway enabled it to compete successfully with Alicante, and revived the mining and metallurgical industries, while considerable sums were expended on bringing the coast and land defences up to date, and adding new quays, docks and other harbour works. Its sanitary condition, though still defective, was improved by the drainage of the adjacent Almajar Marsh and after 1870, when the population had dwindled to about 26,000, Cartagena advanced rapidly in size and wealth. The industrial and commercial progress of Cartagena was much hindered, during the first half of the 19th century, by the prevalence of epidemic diseases, the abandonment of the arsenal, and rivalry with the neighbouring port of Alicante. The mines near the city are very productive, and thousands of men and beasts are employed in transporting lead, iron, copper, zinc and sulphur to the coast. south, protects Cartagena from the violence of wind and waves. The island called La Escombrera, the ancient Scombraria ( i.e. It is dominated, on the seaward side, by four hills, and approached by a narrow entrance, with forts on either hand a breakwater affords shelter on the east, and on the west is the Arsenal Basin, often regarded as the original harbour of the Carthaginians and Romans. The harbour, the largest in Spain after that of Vigo, and the finest on the east coast, is a spacious bay, deep, except near its centre, where there is a ledge of rock barely 5 ft. The wide streets are traversed by a system of tramways, which pass through modern suburbs to the mining district about two leagues inland, and on the west a canal enables small vessels to enter the town without using the port. Its grey houses have a neglected, almost a dilapidated appearance, from the friable stone of which they are constructed and there are no buildings of antiquarian interest or striking architectural beauty, except, perhaps, the ruined citadel and the remnants of the town walls. The city stands on a hill separated by a little plain from the harbour towards the north and east it communicates with a fertile valley on the south and west it is hemmed in by high mountains. Together with Ferrol and San Fernando near Cadiz, the other great naval stations of Spain, it is governed by an admiral with the title of captain-general. Cartagena is fortified, and possesses an arsenal and naval dockyards. and 0° 58′ W., at the terminus of a branch railway from the city of Murcia, and on the Mediterranean Sea. CARTAGENA, or Carthagena, a seaport of south-eastern Spain, in the province of Murcia in 37° 36′ N.
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