The New Student's Reference Work/Omaha, Neb.

O′maha, Neb., the largest city of Nebraska, capital of Douglas County, is on the Missouri which is crossed by a railroad bridge 2,750 feet long. The city is built on a plain 80 feet above the river, which rises gradually into bluffs. The business portion is on the level portion, while the bluffs are occupied by tasteful homes. The city hall, United States courthouse, Omaha Bee building, New York Life Insurance Company's building, Boyd's Theater, St. Joseph's Hospital, chamber of commerce, state asylum for the deaf, Creighton College, a medical college and over 100 churches are among its prominent buildings. The Bee is the most important newspaper published between San Francisco and Chicago. Omaha ranks with Chicago and Kansas City as a live-stock market, having immense stockyards, which cover over 200 acres, and large beef and pork-packing establishments, being the third city in the United States in the value of its pork-products. The manufactures include linseed-oil, boilers, safes, bags, soap and beer. The largest silver-smelting works in the world, using one fourth of the silver ore mined in the United States, are at Omaha. The military department of the Platte, covering 82½ acres, with fine barracks, is near the city. The public schools are maintained at an annual cost of $1,500,000; the buildings consist of 49 grade schools and one high school; besides, the city has a public library, Creighton College two, the Y. M. C. A. one (and six other libraries belong to fraternal societies) and a fine art gallery. Fourteen trunk-lines enter the city, and there are two magnificent stations. Omaha was founded in 1854, and rapidly became one of the leading western cities. Population 124,096.