Urbanization
New York city street scene
Web Field Trip
Take a virtual tour of a restored tenement building. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum preserves the tenement, home to 7,000 tenants over eight decades, at 97 Orchard Street in New York. The site also tells the story of several immigrant families who lived in the building.
Urbanization and growth of the cities occurred at an extremely rapid rate during this period. In 1860, sixteen cities had over 50,000 inhabitants. By 1910, 109 cities had over 50,000 people. The population of three cities—New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago—reached over one million, with three and a half million people living in New York City alone.
Urban housing was a nightmare. Most industrial workers lived in crowded tenements, which were multi-story buildings with community toilets and few or no windows. Dark halls made tenements dangerous and dreary, and poor circulation led to stale and unhealthy air. In an era when the primary mode of transportation was walking, people lived within walking distance of work and found themselves practically on top of one another in disease-ridden and overcrowded tenements.
Did You Know?
The Great Chicago Fire
In many cities buildings were close together and built of wood. Fire spread easily from structure to structure, burning across large sections of many cities. Several major fires raged during the Gilded Age, including the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. During an especially dry season the large wooden row houses, barns, stalls, and tenement houses of Chicago were a disaster waiting to happen. A fire broke out among the town homes and sparked a fire that engulfed large areas of Chicago. Legend claims that Mrs. O’Leary forgot her lantern in the barn and the cow kicked over the lantern and started a fire, a fire that took out half of the city. Many people fled into Lake Michigan seeking refuge from the heat and flames. Chicago learned its lesson, rebuilding with stone and steel rather than wood.
Such living conditions led to poor sanitation. For example, it was so bad in New York City that in 1879 the city passed a law that there must be windows in every bedroom but landlords circumvented the law by installing airshafts. Most people used their airshafts as trash receptacles. Citizens called one section of New York City the “Lung Block” because everyone had tuberculosis. Sewer systems were few and poor. Most emptied into rivers, streams, and lakes, contaminating the water supply and causing disease. Cholera and Typhoid fever resulted from these contaminated water supplies. Cities stunk. Refuse piled up in the streets, and rodents and insects swarmed neighborhoods. The stench in the summertime became so bad it spread for miles.
Crime and Congestion
Jacob Riis photograph of one of the most dangerous areas of New York City
Petty crime ran rampant through cities because there were so many people in small areas under depressed conditions. Gangs were common. The hopelessness of certain urban situations added to the crime problem. There were bars on nearly every corner, and many blamed much of the crime problem on alcoholism. Others blamed immigrants.
Many city streets were narrow and unpaved, becoming dusty or muddy, depending on the weather, and restricted movement. In 1870, New York City developed El (elevated) Trains. The trains initially ran on coal but falling hot embers and black smoke filled the streets. New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago eventually began to use cable cars that were cleaner. In 1897, Boston built the first subway—one and half miles of underground trolley.
Transportation improvements led to the creation of suburbs, as people sought to work in the city, but live away from its poverty and dirtiness. Professionals and managers sought the tranquility of the suburbs away from what they saw as the “wretchedness and filth” of the city.
Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side