Dunkirk

Dunkirk, a city and a port of entry of Chautauqua county, New York, U.S.A., on the S. shore of Lake Erie, 40 m. S.W. of Buffalo. Pop. (1890) 9416; (1900) 11,616, of whom 3338 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 17,221. The city is served by the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, the New York, Chicago & St Louis, and the Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburg railways, by the electric line of the Buffalo & Lake Erie Traction Co., and by several lines of freight and passenger steamships. Dunkirk is attractively situated high above the lake, and has several parks, including Point Gratiot and Washington; in the city are the Dunkirk free library, the Brooks Memorial hospital (1891), and St Mary’s academy. The city lies in an agricultural and grape-growing region, and has a fine harbour and an extensive lake trade; the manufactures include locomotives, radiators, lumber, springs, shirts, axes, wagons, steel, silk gloves and concrete blocks. The value of factory products increased from $5,225,996 in 1900 to $9,909,260 in 1905, or 89.6%. Large numbers of food-fish are caught in the lake. The municipality owns and operates the water works and the electric lighting plant. Dunkirk was first settled about 1805. It was incorporated as a village in 1837, and was chartered as a city in 1880.