Rock Island — Chambers's Encyclopaedia

Rock Island, capital of a county of that name in Illinois, on the Mississippi, opposite Davenport, Iowa (the two are connected by a wrought-iron bridge which cost $1,300,000), 181 miles by rail WSW. of Chicago. The island from which the town is named belongs to the United States, and is used as a public park; on it the government has erected a great arsenal and armoury. The channel to the east of the island has been dammed so as to furnish immense water-power, and the city has flour and saw mills, besides foundries, machine-shops, glass-works, &c. Pop. (1880) 11,659; (1890) 13,634.