The Growth of Cities
Between 1880 and 1920, millions
of people moved to America’s
Cities…
Three Main Groups
Immigrants
Farmers in
the West
Businesses
Cities
Southern
African
Americans
What are the
Push Factors
for these
groups?
The Cycle of City Growth
Businesses are
attracted to labor,
so they locate in
major cities
People are
attracted to cities
because of
economic
opportunity.
How did Cities grow?
•
Expanding Outward…
– Before the Civil War, cities were small extending no
more than a few miles across…
•
•
Why? = TRANSPORTATION!
What is the farthest you can walk in a half hour?
– As cities slowly grew, these small areas became
densely populated.
•
New technologies introduced allowed cities to expand:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Street Cars
Elevated Trains
Cable Cars
Subways
Automobile
How did Cities Grow? (Cont’d)
• Concentric Zone Theory = As cities expanded
outward, different zones were created.
Expansion
because of
street cars
Wealthy move
out, becomes
heavy industry
area, or
“slum.”
Expansion
because of
Cable
Cars/RR
“Old City”
Becomes CBD
Suburbs
=Residential
Communities
surrounding
cities.
Expansion
because of
automobile
Expanding Upwards
• As Urban space became
more of a premium, cities
expanded upwards as
well.
• Elisha Graves Otis
– Invents elevator, 1852
• Chicago’s Home
Insurance Company
Building
– First ‘sky scraper’, 1885
Urban Living Conditions
• Tenements
– Low cost apartment
buildings designed to
hold as many families
as possible.
– Problems?
– Dumbbell Tenement
• Designed to allow for
ventilation and sunlight
Politics in a Growing City
• Rapidly growing cities were
hard to govern. As cities raised
taxes to provide necessary
services (police, fire protection,
garbage disposal, sewage
disposal, etc), corruption in city
politics grew…
• Graft
– The use of one’s job to gain profit
• Political Machine
– Unofficial city organization,
usually run by a “boss,” designed
to keep one group on power.
• Tammany Hall, NY
• Richard Daley, Chicago (modern
day)
Urban Reform
• Reformers during the
Gilded Age began to
document the horrors
of the city to
encourage reform…
• Jacob Riis
– How the Other Half
Lives
• Used photographs to
show reform the
tenement system