La Plata

La Plata, the capital of the Argentinian province of Buenos Ayres, was founded in 1882, after Buenos Ayres city, from which it is about 30 miles SE., had been made the federal capital. The new city was rapidly built, with wide streets, that are now mostly paved, and over a score of open squares; the central portion is lit with the electric light, the rest with kerosene lamps, and there is a service of tramways. The only buildings of note are the handsome capitol and other offices of the government, an observatory, several chapels, and a fine railway station. There are scores of hotels, inns, and cafés. The city has a college, and, 7 miles away, a hospital and an asylum for the insane. Among the manufactories already established is one of cotton and woollen tissues. A canal connects a harbour which has been constructed at La Plata with a larger outer harbour at Ensenada, on the La Plata River. Pop. (1883) of municipality (including, however, Ensenada and a country district of nearly 60 sq. m.), 50,803.