1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Medellin

MEDELLIN, a city of Colombia and capital of the department of Antioquia, 150 m. N.W. of Bogota, on a plateau of the Central Cordillera, 4823 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1906 estimate), 50,000. Medellin, the foundation of which dates from 1674, stands in the valley of the Porce, a tributary of the Cauca, and is reputed to be one of the healthiest as well as one of the most attractive cities of the republic. It has a university, national college, school of mines and other educational institutions, assaying and refining laboratories, a public library and a mint. The principal industry of the surrounding country is mining, and gold and silver are exported in considerable quantities. Coffee and hides are also exported, but the trade of the city has been greatly impeded by difficulties of transportation. A railway from Puerto Berrio, on the Magdalena, was begun many years before the end of the 19th century, but political and financial difficulties interposed and work was suspended when only 43 m. were finished. The completion of the remaining 80 m. was part of a larger scheme proposed in 1906 for bringing the Cauca Valley into railway communication with the national capital.