Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Burlington (1.)

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1945226Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition — Burlington (1.)

BURLINGTON, a city and port of entry of the United States, capital of Chittenden county, in Vermont, 38 miles N.W. of Montpelier, in 44° 27′ N. lat., and 73° 10′ W. long. It has a fine situation on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, and is laid out with great regularity around a central square. Its principal buildings are the Vermont University (which occupies the summit of the slope on which the city is built), the Vermont Episcopal Institute, the court-houses, a jail, a custom-house, and a marine-hospital. The university was founded in 1791, and was endowed by the State with 29,000 acres of land,—to which in 1865 were added 150,000 acres of national grant by the incorporation of the agricultural college. There is a medical school attached. Burlington carries on an extensive trade in lumber, and has the most important share in the shipping traffic of the lake. Its harbour is defended by a breakwater, and a lighthouse was erected at the mouth of the bay in 1862. To the north of the Onion River, but united to Burlington by a bridge, lies the flourishing village of Winooski, with factories and mills. The history of Burlington only dates from 1783; its first church from 1795, and its incorporation as a city from 1864. Population in 1870, 14,387.