Moving to the City

Growth of Cities

American cities grew rapidly after the Civil War. In 1870, one American in four lived in cities with 2,500 or more people. By 1910 nearly half of the American population were city dwellers. The United States was changing from a rural to an urban nation. Immigrants played an enormous part in the growth of cities. In major urban centers such as New York, Detroit, and Chicago, immigrants and their children made up 80 percent or more of the population in 1890.

Native-born Americans also contributed to urban growth or URBANIZATION. Americans moved in huge numbers from farming areas to cities, looking for jobs. The industrialization of America had changed work on farms. New farm machinery made it possible to produce crops, using fewer farmworkers. In addition women in rural areas no longer had to make clothing and household goods. These items, made by machine, could now be bought in stores or from catalogs. Freed from such chores, many women left farms to look for jobs in the cities.

African Americans also migrated to cities in large numbers. The vast majority of the country’s African American population lived in the rural South in great poverty. Many African Americans began moving to Southern cities in search of jobs and to escape debt, injustice, or discrimination. After 1914 a large number of African Americans moved to Northern cities,  which offered more jobs in industry and manufacturing than Southern cities did. Many African Americans also hoped to find less discrimination and violence in the North.

Transportation and Resources

America’s expanding railroad network fed the growth of the cities. Railroads helped people move to the cities, and they transported the raw materials for industry. Trains carried cattle to Chicago and Kansas City, making these cities great meatpacking centers. Some cities flourished because of nearby resources. Pittsburgh developed rapidly as a center for iron and steel manufacturing because both iron ore and coal—to fuel the industry’s huge furnaces—were found in the area. 

Seaports such as New York and San Francisco developed as American trade with the rest of the world increased. In addition the immigrant population of these cities provided a large pool of workers who were available for low wages.

The Gilded Age

At the top of the economic and social ladder stood the very rich. The wealthy lived very different lives from most Americans. They built enormous mansions in the cities and huge estates in the country. Some homes, such as those of J.P. Morgan and Henry Clay Frick in New York City, are now museums.  In these mansions, the rich lived lives of extreme luxury, throwing enormous parties and dinners. In 1883 Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt gave a party for more than 1,000 guests at their New York mansion. The party was estimated to have cost $75,000 for food and entertainment, which is equal to about $1.3 million today.

Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner published a novel in 1873 called The Gilded Age. The name—which refers to something covered with a thin layer of gold—became associated with  America of the late 1800s. The Gilded Age suggested both the extravagant wealth of the time and the terrible poverty that lay underneath.

Cities in Crisis

The rapid growth of the cities produced serious problems. The terrible overcrowding in tenement districts created sanitation and health problems. Garbage and horse manure accumulated in city  streets, and the sewers could not handle the flow of human waste. Filth created a breeding ground for diseases, which spread rapidly through the crowded districts.

Fires were an ever-present threat. About 18,000 buildings were destroyed and 100,000 Chicagoans lost their homes in the Chicago fire of 1871. Two years later, Boston experienced a devastating fire.

Health and Crime Problems

In a poor Chicago neighborhood in 1900, babies often died of whooping cough, diphtheria, or measles before their first birthday. A section of New York was called the “lung block” because so many residents had tuberculosis. In an effort to control disease, New York City began to screen schoolchildren for contagious diseases and to provide visiting nurses to mothers with young children. The city also established public health clinics for those who could not pay for medical care.

The poverty in the cities inevitably led to crime. Orphaned and homeless children sometimes resorted to picking pockets and other minor crimes to survive. Gangs roaming the poor neighborhoods committed more serious crimes. Jacob Riis reported:

“The gang is an institution in New York. The police deny its existence while nursing the bruises received in nightly battles with it. . . . The gang is the ripe fruit of tenement-house growth. It was born there.”

The Horse Manure Problem of 1894:

 The 15 to 30 pounds of manure produced daily by each beast multiplied by the 150,000+ horses in New York city resulted in more than three million pounds of horse manure per day that somehow needed to be disposed of. That’s not to mention the daily 40,000 gallons of horse urine. In other words, cities reeked. As Morris says, the “stench was omnipresent.” Here are some fun bits from his article: Urban streets were minefields that needed to be navigated with the greatest care. “Crossing sweepers” stood on street corners; for a fee they would clear a path through the mire for pedestrians. Wet weather turned the streets into swamps and rivers of muck, but dry weather brought little improvement; the manure turned to dust, which was then whipped up by the wind, choking pedestrians and coating buildings. . . . even when it had been removed from the streets the manure piled up faster than it could be disposed of . . . early in the century farmers were happy to pay good money for the manure, by the end of the 1800s stable owners had to pay to have it carted off. As a result of this glut . . . vacant lots in cities across America became piled high with manure; in New York these sometimes rose to forty and even sixty feet. We need to remind ourselves that horse manure is an ideal breeding ground for flies, which spread disease. Morris reports that deadly outbreaks of typhoid and “infant diarrheal diseases can be traced to spikes in the fly population.” Comparing fatalities associated with horse-related accidents in 1916 Chicago versus automobile accidents in 1997, he concludes that people were killed nearly seven times more often back in the good old days. The reasons for this are straightforward: . . . horse-drawn vehicles have an engine with a mind of its own. The skittishness of horses added a dangerous level of unpredictability to nineteenth-century transportation. This was particularly true in a bustling urban environment, full of surprises that could shock and spook the animals. Horses often stampeded, but a more common danger came from horses kicking, biting, or trampling bystanders. Children were particularly at risk. Falls, injuries, and maltreatment also took a toll on the horses themselves. Data cited by Morris indicates that, in 1880, more than 3 dozen dead horses were cleared from New York streets each day (nearly 15,000 a year).

Seeking Solutions

The problems of the cities did not go unnoticed. Many dedicated people worked to improve urban life and help the poor. Religious groups aided the poor. Some religious orders helped the poor in orphanages, prisons, and hospitals. Organizations such as the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) and YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) offered recreation centers where city youngsters could meet and play. The poor also received assistance from establishments called settlement houses. The settlement house movement had spread to the United States from Britain. Located in poor neighborhoods, settlement houses provided medical care, playgrounds, nurseries, and libraries as well as classes in English, music, and arts and crafts. Settlement workers mostly women—also tried to get better police protection, garbage removal, and public parks for poor districts.

One of the most famous settle ment houses was Chicago’s Hull House, founded by Jane Addams in 1889. Addams explained: 

“We were ready to perform the humblest neighborhood services. We were asked to wash the new-born babies, and  to prepare the dead for burial, to nurse the sick, and to‘mind the children.’”

The Changing City

Urban growth led to important new developments. In the late 1800s, cities saw the introduction of a new type of building, new kinds of public transportation, and public parks.

Building Up—Not Out Because of the limited space in cities, imaginative architects began building upward rather than outward. In the 1860s architects started to use iron frames to strengthen the walls of buildings. Iron supports—together with the safety elevator that Elisha Otis invented in 1852—made taller buildings possible.  In 1884 William LeBaron Jenney constructed a 10-story office building in Chicago.

Supported by an iron-and-steel frame, it was the world’s first skyscraper. Architect Louis Sullivan gave style to the skyscraper. 

“It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation,” he said. 

Sullivan and his colleagues changed the face of America’s cities. Soon people built even higher structures. New York’s Woolworth Building, completed in 1913, soared an incredible 55 stories—792 feet (241 m) high. People called the building the Cathedral of Commerce.

New Designs

Some people looked to reshape the urban landscape. A group known as the “City Beautiful” movement believed city dwellers should be able to enjoy the beauties of nature. Frederick Law Olmsted, a leader in this movement,designed New York’s Central Park as well as several parks in Boston.

In 1892 and 1893, Chicago hosted a World’s Fair on fairgrounds designed by Olmsted. The Fair revealed that American architecture was dynamic and original. The best architects thoroughly understood European styles and adapted them for modern use. The firm of McKim, Mead, and White used the Italian Renaissance style in its design for the Boston Public Library. Henry Richardson adapted styles from ancient Rome in his design for churches, libraries, and even department stores.

New Forms of Transportation

As cities grew, people needed new means of transportation. Mark Twain complained in 1867 that “New York is too large. You cannot accomplish anything . . . without devoting a whole day to it. . . . The distances are too great.” Streetcars, which horses pulled on tracks, provided public transportation at the time. Horses were slow, however, and left piles of manure.

In 1873 San Francisco began construction of cable-car lines. A large underground cable powered by a motor at one end of the rail line moved passengers along. In 1888 Richmond,

Virginia, pioneered the use of the trolley car, a motorized train that was powered by electricity supplied through overhead cables. By the turn of the century, the trolley was everywhere. In 1897, Boston opened the nation’s first subway, or underground railway. In 1904, New York City

opened the first section of what was to become the largest subway system in the world.

Another improvement that helped transportation was the paving of streets. During most of the 1800s, city streets remained poorly paved.

For example, although the rapid growth of Cleveland, Ohio, made that city an important urban center, most of its streets were nothing more than sand and gravel. Other cities used

wood blocks, brick, or cobblestone, all of which were bumpy, noisy, and hard to repair.

 The growing use of asphalt—a by-product of petroleum refining—beginning in the 1890s made city streets smoother and quieter.

Building Bridges

Bridge construction provided another improvement in urban transportation. Many American cities were divided or bounded by rivers. Using new construction technology, architects and engineers designed huge steel bridges to link sections of cities. The 520-foot (156-m) Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis opened in 1874. Ten years later New York’s majestic Brooklyn Bridge, 1,600 feet (488 m) long, connected Manhattan and Brooklyn. Both bridges remain in use today.

The new forms of transportation not only helped people travel within the cities, but they also helped the cities grow. Middle-class suburbs developed along train or trolley lines stretching away from city centers. People who moved out of the city centers could easily travel downtown to work or shop. The increase in immigration and the growth of the cities went hand in hand with other changes in American life. Education, culture, and recreation were changing too.