Elbing
a trading and manufacturing town of West Prussia; 48 miles by rail E. S. E. of Danzig; on the navigable river of the same name. The town, founded in the 13th century by colonists from Lübeck and Bremen, has a church of the 14th century. It is connected by a canal with the Dreventz, a tributary of the Vistula, and in 1877-1884 a mole was constructed in the harbor, 3,500 yards long and 5½ wide. Steamships and torpedo-boats are built here; and there are large iron and brass rollingmills, and tinware, machine, and cigar factories. The linen industry and the export of lampreys are also of importance. Pop. about 58,000.