PROVIDENCE, the capital of Rhode Island, one of the United States of North America. It is situated at the head of the tide-waters of Narragansett Bay, immediately above the mouth of the Seekonk, about thirty miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The town is built on both sides of an arm of the bay, which is usually called Providence River; and its position is pleasant, although on the sharp acclivities of hills. The two sections of Providence are connected by two bridges, one of which is ninety feet in length. This is a wealthy and flourishing town, and of late years has rapidly increased in importance. The buildings are chiefly of wood, uniformly painted white; but a number of them are composed of more substantial materials, as granite and brick. Those of a public nature are the State-house, the Arcade, the halls of Brown University, the Dexter Asylum, nearly twenty places of public worship, a number of public schools, and several large manufacturing establishments. The Arcade is the most splendid building of the kind in the Union. It presents two fronts of hammered granite, each seventy-two feet in width, and forming a colonnade of six columns of pure Grecian Doric. The body of the building is two hundred and twenty-two feet in length. Several of the churches are handsome structures. Brown University has two halls, both built of brick, and each containing about fifty rooms for students and the necessary business of the establishment. It was founded in the year 1764, and in 1838 contained ten instructors, 1253 alumni, 450 ministers, 187 students, 6000 volumes in the college library, and 5600 volumes in the students' libraries. There are also a number of public schools, a mechanics' and a manufacturers' association, an atheneum, a large asylum for the poor, a Friends' boarding school, which is a large and excellent establishment, and libraries attached to all or most of these, besides the Providence Library. About twelve newspapers are published in this city.
Providence was early a place of much commercial enterprise; but it is now most distinguished for its manufactures. There are four or five cotton factories; several extensive bleacheries, in which large quantities of cotton cloth from many of the factories in Rhode Island and other states are bleached and otherwise prepared; a number of dye-houses, foundries, and machine-shops, the two latter being employed principally in building cotton machinery. There are, besides, establishments for the manufacture of steam-engines, files, leather, shoes, soap, combs, hats, jewellery, and for working in tin and other metals; and there is also a large glass-house for the manufacture and cutting of flint-glass. In the year 1831, there were imported 55,707 bales of cotton, 71,369 barrels of flour, 216,662 bushels of corn, and 7772 bushels of rye. The imports in 1831 amounted to 457,717 dollars; and the exports, domestic and foreign, to 329,634 dollars. The amount of shipping registered for the same year was 12,362 tons; that enrolled, 4788 tons. It possesses a fine harbour, there being water for vessels of nine hundred tons burden close to the wharfs. Business is greatly promoted by a number of banks, which possess an aggregate capital of about five millions of dollars. This
town was founded in the year 1636 by one Williams, who was banished from Massachusetts on account of his religious tenets. It has repeatedly been nearly destroyed by fire and storm. In 1831 Providence was incorporated as a city, and divided into six wards, the municipal government being vested in a mayor, a board of aldermen, and a common council. The population, which in 1832 was about 20,000, cannot in 1839 be estimated under 30,000. Providence is situated forty miles south-south-west of Boston, thirty north of Newport, and one hundred and ninety north-east of New York, in lat. 41. 51. north, and long. 71. 26. west from Greenwich.