Budapest

boo'do-pest, the capital of Hungary and the second city of Austria-Hungary. It is situated on the Danube about 135 miles below Vienna. The city took its present name in 1873 from the union of Buda, lying on the west bank, and Pesth, on the east bank. Buda rests on cliffs; Pesth on a plain. The parts of the city are united by a fine suspension bridge, the last on the Danube. Quays second only to those of London extend along the Danube for three miles. Old Buda was a Roman outpost as early as 150 A. D. There are old fortifications, mosques, and monuments commemorative of centuries of contests with the Turks; but Budapest, like its name, is a modern city rising on the ruins of the past. Steam-boat landings, warehouses, railway stations, broad, busy streets, parliament houses, and departmental government buildings, a wide-awake university, an academy of sciences, hotels, and modern store buildings, indicate a thriving commercial and administrative city. The population in 1900 was 732,822, comparable with that of Glasgow. Budapest is noted for its electric works. Many of the devices connected with electric lighting, motors, and trolley lines were invented here. There are large manufactures of brass and copper wire, gold and silver plate, iron, wood, and machinery. It is one of the world's great grain markets, and rivals Minneapolis as a milling center. The roller process, a method of crushing grain between steel rollers instead of grinding between millstones, is a Hungarian invention. See Hungary; Austria; Danube