Bradford

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BRADFORD Bradford is a city in the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire in northern England.

Bradford County is the largest of the four counties of the Endless Mountains region of Pennsylvania and is rich in history. The area is also rich in native American history.

The city, which was formed in 1974 and incorporates the towns of Keighley and Shipley, is crossed by the Aire River. Bradford is one of those cities that are developed of nineteenth-century industrialism.

Bradford is the main English worsted-manufacturing and wool-trade center. Other manufactures include machinery and leather goods. Dairy farming is important in the rural northwestern area of the city. All the processes of worsted manufacture for example spinning, weaving, dyeing or fishing is done in Bradford It is near some large coalfields and has an excellent supply of soft water free from lime which is good for both washing wool and dyeing it.

Bradford was a market center with a wool trade by the 13th century. At the end of the 18th century the community's first steam-powered wool mill was established. Worsted manufacturing began to dominate Bradford's industry in the middle of the 19th century which led to a rapid growth of the city. In 1801 it had a population of about 13.000, in 1901 its population had risen to 280.000. Today the population is about 500.000.

After 1830 Bradford began to grow rapidly and extend its wealth. Reasons for this extension were its natural advantages, the general state of trade and that during the early Victorian periods a number of German and German-Jewish merchants settled in the town and the result of this invasion was that Bradford became at once one of the most provincial and most cosmopolitan cities in England. The war changed it all. There is hardly a trace in the city of that German-Jewish invasion today; many people changed their names and personnel or went out of business.

The University of Bradford built in 1957 and several technical schools are located here. One of the important sights is the Saint Peter's Cathedral, a cathedral built in the15th-century.

Bradford is always a city of travellers. People travel to Bradford only because of its wool and its historical sights.