Milwaukee, capital of Milwaukee county, Wisconsin, and the largest city in the state, is situated on the west shore of Lake Michigan, at the common mouth of three improved and navigable rivers, which, with a canal, supply 20 miles of dockage. The city (of which a great part was destroyed by fire on October 28, 1892, the loss being nearly $6,000,000) is 85 miles by rail N. of Chicago, and overlooks Milwaukee Bay, which has a width of 7 miles and contains a harbour of refuge. The parked and terraced bluffs have an average height of 80 feet above the water. Milwaukee is beautifully built with light yellow bricks—to which it owes its name of 'the Cream City.' The streets are wide and parked between the roadway and the sidewalk, and are lined on either side by magnificent elms whose branches form an almost continuous arch in the residential parts. The public parks contain some 600 acres, and are connected by wide boulevards. There are nineteen street railway lines, nearly all operated by electricity, and the streets are mainly lighted by arc lights. A new and vast system of intercepting sewers is in operation, and the river is flushed by means of a huge tunnel from the lake. Among public buildings are the Custom-house and Post Office, the County Court, the Chamber of Commerce, the Exposition Building (with a natural history collection), the Layton Art Gallery (completed 1888, and containing some interesting pictures and statues), and the public library (100,000 volumes). Several of the railway depôts are handsome buildings. The new City Hall was arranged for in 1890-95.
Milwaukee, which is a great railway centre, is essentially a manufacturing city. The value of its products in the census year 1890 was more than $95,000,000, representing grain, flour, lumber (its principal items of trade), beer, pork, engines and machinery, iron, steel, and brass goods, leather, and tobacco. There are large flour-mills and enormously capacious elevators. Pork-packing is another great industry. Milwaukee lager beer is famous all over the States, and the vast breweries (one producing over 1,000,000 barrels annually) are among the chief sights of the city. Fully half of the inhabitants are German, or of German extraction, and to this some ascribe the interest of the city in music and art. Milwaukee was founded in 1835, chartered in 1846, and grew prodigiously after 1880. There is active steamer trading on the lakes. Juneau Park is laid out on a bluff overlooking the river. Near the city is the National Soldiers' Home, with its park, accommodating 2000 disabled soldiers. Twenty miles to the west, at Waukesha, is the famous Bethesda spring, whose waters are largely exported for the use of diabetic patients. Pop. (1870) 71,440; (1880) 115,578; (1890) 203,947 within the city limits (18 square miles).