Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Burlington (3.)
BURLINGTON, a city of the United States, the capital of the county of Des Moines in Iowa, on the right bank of the Mississippi, 207 miles by rail from Chicago. It occupies a natural amphitheatre formed by the limestone bluffs which slope backward from the river. Among the educational institutions the chief place is held by the Business College, founded in 1865, and the Baptist University, which dates from 1854. There are about eight public schools, fifteen churches, and a public library. The commercial activity of the city is very great, and is gradually increasing. Its industrial establishments comprise flour-mills, pork-packing warehouses, foundries, breweries, and soapworks; and the neighbourhood furnishes an abundant supply of coal, building stone, and lime. The city is also the centre of a considerable railway system. Laid out in 1834, it ranked for several years (1837–40) as the capital of Iowa. Population in 1860, 6706; in 1870, 14,933.