defend its approaches against a greatly superior force. The Chalco and Xochimilco lakes, 8 or 9 m. to the southward, which are separated by a narrow ridge of land, are connected with the lower part of the city by an artificial canal, called “La Viga,” 16 m. long and 30 ft. wide, which serves as an outlet for the overflow of those lakes and as a waterway for the natives who bring in flowers and vegetables for sale. Lake Xochimilco, celebrated for its chinampas, or “floating gardens” (see Mexico, Federal District of), is supplied very largely by fresh-water springs opening within the lake itself, which the city has partially diverted for its own water supply. Lake Chalco is also greatly reduced in size by railway fillings and irrigation works, to the great distress of the natives who have gained their living by fishing in its waters since long before the Spanish conquest.
The climate of the city is temperate, dry and healthful. The temperature ranges from a minimum of 35° F. in winter to a maximum of 79 in summer. The winter range is 35° to 68°, and the summer 50° to 79°. The nights are always cool. The year is divided into a wet and dry season, the former from April to September, the latter from October to March. The rainfall, however, is light, about 20 to 25 in., but, with the assistance of irrigation, it serves to sustain a considerable degree of cultivation in the neighbourhood of the city. The health of the city, unfortunately, does not correspond with its favourable climatic conditions. With a wet, undrained subsoil and a large population of Indians and half-breeds living in crowded quarters, the death-rate has been notoriously high, though the completion of the Valley drainage works in 1900, supplemented by underground sewers in the better parts of the city, and by better sanitation, have recently improved matters. The annual death-rate per 1000 was 54 per 1000 for the Federal District in 1901, 50 in 1902, 48 in 1903, 46 in 1904, and 56 in 1905; the increase for the last-mentioned year being due to an epidemic of typhus fever.
The city is laid out with almost unbroken regularity and is compactly built—the streets running nearly with the cardinal points of the compass. The new and better residence sections are on the western side; the poorer districts are on the eastern side nearer the swampy shores of Lake Texcoco. As the name of a street changes with almost every block, according to the old Spanish custom, a list of street names is sometimes mistakenly accepted as the number of continuous thoroughfares in the city, so that it has been said that Mexico has 600 to 900 streets and alleys. An attempt was made in 1889 to rename the streets—all running east and west to be called avenidas, all running north and south calles, and all continuous thoroughfares to have but one name—but the people clung so tenaciously to the old names that the government was compelled to restore them in 1907. Outside the Indian districts of the eastern and southern outskirts, the streets are paved with asphalt and stone, lighted with electricity and gas, and served with an efficient street railway service. The political and commercial centre of the city is the Plaza Mayor, or Plaza de la Constitución, on which face the cathedral, national palace, and municipal palace. Grouped about the Plaza de Santo Domingo are the old convent and church of Santo Domingo, the court of the Inquisition now occupied by the School of Medicine, the offices of the Department of Communicaciones, and the old custom-house (aduana). Close by are the old church of the Jesuits and the mechanics’ school (artes y oficios) with its large and well-equipped shops. Among other well-known plazas are: Loreto, on which faces the great enclosed market of the city; Guardiola, in the midst of handsome private residences; San Fernando, with its statue of Vicente Guerrero; and Morelos, with its marble statue of the national hero of that name. The Paseo de la Reforma, the finest avenue of the city, is a broad boulevard extending from the Avenida Juárez south-west to Chapultepec, a distance of nearly three miles. At intervals are circular spaces, called “glorietas,” with statues (the famous bronze equestrian statue of Charles IV., and monuments to Columbus, Cuauhtemoc the last of the Aztec emperors, and Juárez). Other notable avenues are Bucareli and Juárez, and the Avenida de la Viga, which skirts the canal of that name. The principal business streets runs westward from the Plaza Mayor toward the Alameda, and is known as the Calle de los Plateros (Silversmiths’ Street) for two squares, Calle de San Francisco for three squares, and Avenida Juárez along the south side of the Alameda to its junction with the Paseo. The Alameda, or public garden, 12 m. west of the Plaza Mayor, covers an area of 40 acres, and occupies the site of the old Indian market and place of execution, where occurred the first auto-da-fé in Mexico in 1574.
The great cathedral stands on or near the site of the Aztec temple (teocalli) destroyed by Cortés in 1521. The foundations were laid in 1573, the walls were completed in 1615, the roof was finished in 1623, its consecration took place in 1645 and its dedication in 1667, the towers were completed in 1791, and the great church was finished about 1811. It is 426 ft. in length by 197 ft. in width, and its towers rise to a height of 204 ft. Its general plan is that of a Greek cross, with two great naves and three aisles, twenty side-chapels and a magnificent high altar supported by marble columns and surrounded by a tumbago balustrade with sixty-two tumbago statues carrying elaborate candelabra made from a rich alloy of gold, silver and copper. The elaborately carved choir is also enclosed by tumbago railings made in Macao, weighing 26 tons. The vaulted roof is supported by twenty Doric columns, 180 ft. in height, and the whole interior is richly carved and gilded. The walls are covered with rare paintings. Standing close beside the cathedral is the highly ornamented facade of a smaller church called El Sagrario Metropolitano. The city has about sixty church edifices, including La Profesa, Loreto, Santa Teresa, Santo Domingo and San Hipólito. At the time of the secularization of Church properties there were about 120 religious edifices in the city—churches, convents, monasteries, &c.—many of which were turned over to secular uses.
The national palace, also on the Plaza Mayor, has a frontage of 675 ft. on the east of the Plaza, and covers a square of 47,840 sq. yds., or nearly 10 acres. It contains the executive offices of the government and those of five cabinet ministers (interior, foreign affairs, treasury, war and justice), the senate chamber, the general archives, national museum, observatory and meteorological bureau. The palace occupies the site of the residence of Moctezuma, which was destroyed by the Spaniards, and that of Hernando Cortés, which was also destroyed in 1692. It has three entrances on the Plaza, and over its main gateway hangs the “liberty bell” of Mexico, first rung by the humble parish priest Hidalgo, on the night of the 16th of September 1810, to call the people of Dolores to arms, and now rung at midnight on each recurring anniversary by the president himself. The national museum, which occupies the east side of the national palace, is rich in Mexican antiquities, among which are the famous “calendar stone,” [1] supposed to be of Toltec origin, and the “sacrificial stone” found in the ruins of the great teocalli destroyed by Cortés. Near the cathedral is the monte de piedad, or government pawnshop, endowed in 1775 by Pedro Romero de Terreros (conde de Regla) with 75,000, and at one time carrying on a regular banking business including the issue of bank-notes. Its business is now limited to the issue of small loans on personal property the aggregate sometimes reaching nearly 50,000 a month. The national library, which has upwards of 225,000 volumes, occupies the old St Augustine Church, dedicated in 1692 and devoted to its present use by Juárez in 1867. It contains an interesting collection of the busts of Mexican celebrities. The academy of San Carlos and school of fine arts (founded in 1778) likewise contains good collections of paintings and statuary.
Among other institutions are the new post office, begun in 1902 and finished in 1907; the Minería, occupied by the schools of mining and engineering; the military school, occupying a part of the castle of Chapultepec; the Iturbide palace, now occupied as a hotel; the Iturbide theatre, occupied by the chamber of deputies, for which a new legislative palace to cost 2,500,000 pesos was under construction in 1909; the new palace of justice; the old mint, dating from 1537; the new penitentiary, completed in 1900; the Pantéon, with its monuments to the most celebrated Mexicans; the new general hospital; the jockey club on Plaza Guardiola, a new university (1910) and new school edifices of modern design. The city is likewise generously provided with hospitals and asylums.
The old Spanish edifices were very solidly constructed of stone, and private residences were provided with iron gates and window guards strong enough to withstand an ordinary assault. Private houses were also provided with flat roofs (azoteas) and battlements, which gave them great defensive strength, as well as a cool, secluded retreat for their inmates in the evening. The old Moorish style of building about an open court, or patio, prevails, and the living-rooms of the family are on the second floor. The better residences of the old style were commonly of two storeys—the ground-floor being occupied by shops, offices, stables and servants’ quarters. The more modern constructions of the Colonia Juárez and other new residence districts are more attractive and pretentious in appearance, but are less solidly built.- ↑ Bandelier thinks it should be called the “Stone of the Sun.”
