Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Angostura

ANGOSTURA, also called Ciudad Bolivar, and San Tomas de la Nueva Guayana, a town of Venezuela, capital of the province of Guayana, situated on the right bank of the Orinoco, about 240 miles from its mouths, and only 191 feet above the level of the sea. It is the seat of a bishop, and contains a cathedral, a college, and an hospital, while a fort stands on the opposite side of the river, at this point comparatively narrow. Being the centre of a rich and extensive territory, Angostura would before now have probably become a large and flourishing city, had it not been retarded by the war of independence, and by the unsettled state of the country ; for a long period it retro graded rather than progressed, and although now in a more prosperous condition, it has not yet reached the posi tion to which it is entitled. The Orinoco is navigable for vessels of 300 tons, and a considerable trade is carried on in cocoa, sugar, cotton, jerked meat, and hides, as well as in the bark that takes its name from, the city. In 1819 a congress met at Angostura, which resulted in the union of Venezuela and New Granada into one government under the name of the republic of Columbia ; and in the same year the town began to be called Ciudad Bolivar, in honour of Simon Bolivar, who freed the country from the yoke of Spain. Population, about 8000.