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This lesson examines the rapid growth of cities and the challenges of living in crowded urban environments.
Imagine sharing a single, windowless room with ten strangers, where the air is thick with coal smoke and the nearest water pump is blocks away. Would you trade your quiet farm life for a chance at a factory fortune?
In the late s, the United States underwent a massive transformation called urbanization—the shift of the population from rural farms to crowded cities. This wasn't an accident; it was fueled by the Industrial Revolution. As factories replaced hand-tools, they needed thousands of workers. This created a 'pull factor,' drawing immigrants from Europe and displaced farmers from the American countryside. By , nearly of Americans lived in cities, a massive jump from just in . Cities like Chicago grew by over in just twenty years, creating a desperate need for housing that didn't yet exist.
Quick Check
What was the primary economic driver that caused the rapid shift from rural to urban living?
Answer
The Industrial Revolution and the resulting need for factory workers.
To house the flood of workers, developers built tenements: low-cost, multi-family apartment buildings. These structures were designed to cram as many people as possible into the smallest space. A typical tenement might house families in a space designed for . Most rooms had no windows or ventilation, leading to 'stale air' that trapped heat and smells. Because there was no indoor plumbing, residents shared outdoor privies (toilets) that often overflowed into the same ground where water pumps were located. This lack of infrastructure—the basic systems like sewers and clean water—made the city a dangerous place to live.
To understand the scale of overcrowding, consider a single tenement block in New York's Lower East Side. 1. A standard city lot was feet by feet ( square feet). 2. A tenement building on this lot might house people. 3. This means each person had approximately square feet of space—roughly the size of a small dining table.
Quick Check
Why did the lack of infrastructure in tenements lead to health crises?
Answer
Lack of clean water and sewage systems caused waste to contaminate living areas and drinking water.
The combination of filth and overcrowding was deadly. Diseases like cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis spread like wildfire. In some poor urban districts, the infant mortality rate was as high as . However, this misery sparked the Progressive Movement. Social reformers like Jacob Riis used the new technology of flash photography to document these horrors in his book, How the Other Half Lives. His work shocked the middle class and led to the first 'Tenement House Acts,' which eventually required buildings to have outward-facing windows and indoor toilets.
In , a new law required all rooms to have a window. Architects designed the 'Dumbbell Tenement.' 1. The building was shaped like a weight-lifting dumbbell, with a narrow air shaft in the middle. 2. While this provided a window for every room, the air shafts became 'chimneys' for fires and trash heaps for residents. 3. This shows that early attempts at reform often had unintended negative consequences.
Which term describes the movement of people from farms to cities?
What was a major consequence of the lack of sewage systems in 19th-century cities?
Jacob Riis used photography to show the wealthy how the poor were living in tenements.
Review Tomorrow
In 24 hours, try to list the three main problems found in 19th-century tenements (hint: think about air, water, and people).
Practice Activity
Look up a modern floor plan of a one-bedroom apartment. Compare its square footage and features (windows, bathroom) to the square feet per person in a historical tenement.