In the United States, the industrial revolution had a significant impact on the country’s cities. Manufacturers constructed factories in cities because of the high populations that offered a consistent workforce. The factories had the effect of attracting far more individuals to the cities. As a result, during the Second Industrial Revolution, Metropolitan areas increased in size. For example, between 1850 and 1900, the population in New York City increased from half a million to 3.5 million (Gowland et al., 2018). In the same period, Philadelphia’s population grew from 121,000 to over a million people. Chicago grew to be the nation’s fastest-growing city and the Midwest’s most extensive, mostly during the second phase of the 19th century. About a third of Americans lived in urban areas by 1900.
The industrialized and settled cities throughout the First Industrial Revolution were determined by their proximity to land and resources and transportation. Manufacturers used rivers and ports to carry in energy resources and transport their products in cities near significant waterways. Pittsburgh, which sits at the confluence of three main rivers, grew into a major steel producer. Chicago’s position on Lake Michigan’s shores and along proven land routes to the West made it a major commercial crossroads between some of the East and the West. Cattle, lumber, and grain from the West were manufactured in Chicago before being transported to the East and beyond. The meatpacking industry, which dominated the city’s southern half side, became the most recognizable feature (Gowland et al., 2018). Detroit thus became the nation’s car production base at the end of the 19th century. At the start of the 20th century, almost half of all New York City workers worked in clothing, and financing was channeled through either San Francisco or New York for almost everything in the country.
Reference
Gowland, R. L., Caffell, A. C., Newman, S., Levene, A., & Holst, M. (2018). Broken childhoods: Rural and urban non-adult health during the Industrial Revolution in Northern England (18th-19th centuries). Bioarchaeology International., 2(1), 44-62.