An elaborately printed promotional work extoling the economic opportunities of San Diego as a port, issued at a pivotal time as the city expanded it's commerical outlook. The booklet is nicely printed by a local printer (Watson-Jones), and illustrated with photographic views of the prominent buildings, schools, hotels and government buildings in San Diego.
Water resources are illustrated with views of Barrett Dam, Lake Hodges Dam, Sweetwater Dam, and Lower Otay Dam with a summary of capacity for each. One of the last pages describes the Isthmus Tehuantepec Ship Railway, illustrated with a map, which is decribed as a competitor to the Panama Canal that could increase the value of San Diego Harbor. The project was financed by "capitalists" in Germany, France, Belgium, and Great Britain, "who evolved the idea of its construction shortly before the outbreak of the World War."
The author was the principal behind Thornley Terminals, which was then planning a large pier at San Diego near National City, which is illustrated herein by an artist's rendering:
The facilities afforded for the economical trans-shipment of goods by rail and water will not be excelled by any other facilities in the world... The proposed pier is 1000 feet in length, 400 feet in width and has a depth of water of 30 feet at low water. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, San Diego & Arizona Railway (Southern Pacific Lines) and Rock Island provide through traffic to the east and the southwest, bringing this shipping point nearer those parts of the country than any other existing point on the Pacific Coast.
It is not known whether the terminal project was built exactly as planned and illustrated herein.
Rarity
Quite scarce in the market. Only 4 examples located in OCLC: California Historical, San Diego Public, San Diego State, and Claremont Colleges. Not in John R. Adams, Books and Authors of San Diego.