2. •Manhattan used to be a
small town- It is now a
glorious city. From the 19th
century to the 20th century
its population grew
significantly
This was partially due to the
opening of the Erie Canal
•The small town – now a city,
got fire stations and police
departments as well as
shops, museums and offices.
•By the Civil War New York
was the largest city of
commerce in the U.S.

3.  CENTRAL PARK!
› Having a city as large
as New York without
having anywhere
peaceful to go was a
problem. In 1876 the
city purchased a strip
of land and Frederick
Law Olmsted and
Calvert Vaux set to
work on creating
“Central Park” This
would be a place for
all citizens to go
without worrying about
discriminationatory
rules.

4. •Between 1845-1855
Ireland had a Potato
famine, this caused
over a million Irish
immigrants to flee to
American in search of
work and means of
living. However
residents of New York
didn’t take kindly to
this, they soon
created anti Catholic
camps to dissuade
Irish from entering.
•Irish and African
Americans were
forced to take the
hard jobs that no one
else wanted.
The Americans soon
grew to hiring Irish
men over the blacks,
this was the
beginning of
Discrimination in
New York , and years
later the problems
were solved.

5.  The end of the Civil War! New
York now began to rebuild
itself.
 Railroads became a more
important project for
Americans to complete.
 The Hudson river froze, resulting
in a hault to commerce in
Manhattan and New York.
 The invention of the camera
arrived and brought light to
how some people in the city
actually lived.

6.  The Brooklyn Bridge!
› Construction began in
1870. John Roebling was
the chief engineer of
this project. However he
died from an infection in
his foot caused by it
being crushed against a
piling during a
construction survey he
was doing. After his
death, his soon
Washington Roebling
took charge of the
project and completed
the bridge in 1883.
This bridge was 1,600 feet long and
about 275 feet high. This
symbolized the steel revolution that
was soon to follow.

7.  William “Boss” Tweed- The most
corrupt politician in history.
 He managed Tammany Hall (a place
that provided Irish and German
settlers with jobs, food, and shelters)
 He became the third largest real
estate owners in the city.
 He stole over 50 million dollars from
faking leases and some claim up to
200 million was stolen.
 He was sentenced to 10 years in
prison, got out, then fled to Spain
where he was sent back to finish his
life in prison.

8.  Boston and Philadelphia challenged New
York for the claim of the U.S.’s “main center
of commerce”
 New York had many advantages though-
they were not only a large port (thus could
easily access shipments or importing and
exporting goods) but they also had many
growing markets.
 In 2000 AOL bought Time Warner and this
aided New York in joining the ranks of the
masters of the digital age.

9.  Chicago is the fastest
growing city in America,
they had a successful
railroad industry.
 They were among the
first to use technology
such as the telephone,
cable cars, electric
trolleys, and elevators.
 These means of public
transportation were
both affordable and
successful in their
growth of the city.

10.  Chicago (like New York) also
created a large urban park.
However in contrast to
Central Park’s massive
amount of land, they decided
to make eight smaller parks
instead. The parks consisted
of small zoo’s, fields, lakes,
and amphitheaters.
 Chicagos true success came
from hosting the World’s
Columbian Expo in 1893.

11.  Skyscrapers!
› Most cities in the United States looked
relatively the same. Long straight
streets, office buildings, and
neighborhoods.
› Chicago had a great fire in 1871, and
afterwards they rebuilt their city with
electric trolleys and steel framed
Skyscrapers.
› The first steel framed building was built
in 1892. It was 22 stories tall. This made
way for neighborhoods to now be
converted into apartment buildings
and other confined means of housing
the growing population in cities.