Summary Of Nature's Metropolis: Chicago And The Great West

Chicago, Illinois was a popular city in the early United States. Chicago was a center for trade due to the water sources running through it. The two rivers located in Chicago, the Chicago River and the Des Plaines River, connected the city to the Mississippi river and Lake Michigan. Railroads through Chicago also helped it become a transportation center in the United States. Thousands of immigrants came to Chicago every year. Settlers and visitors arrived constantly by wagon, ship, or even train. There were around ten railroads that congregated in the city. Many people saw Chicago as a great opportunity. Merchants, tradesmen, and business from the East Coast scrambled to the new businesses opportunities in the city. In 1870, only one year before the Great Fire, around 300,000 people lived in Chicago.

The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, more formally known as the Columbian Exposition, was a fair constructed to celebrate Columbus’ arrival in the New World. Chicago was known as the White City, but did not appear as pure and spotless as its name suggested. For instance, there were many ways one could get killed. “Fire took a dozen lives a day...There was diphtheria, typhus, cholera, influenza. And there was murder.” (Larson 12). These unstoppable causes of death was one of the reasons Chicago’s reputation was tarnished. Furthermore, the Panic of 1893 struck and greatly affected the city of Chicago. The Panic’s effects included “financial crises”, “bankruptcy”, and “high rates of unemployment and homelessness”. (Panic of 1893). Because of the city’s economic depression, the fair would decide whether Chicago’s circumstances would improve or deteriorate. Eventually, the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair displayed what America would soon become in an industrial, military, and economic perspective.

Today, Detroit, New York City and Chicago have many similarities They're highly populated cities with high crime rates, many homeless people, noisy streets and terrible traffic. In contrast, they attract many tourists with their tall skyscrapers, and their famous attractions. As well as similarities, there's also, many differences. Today, Chicago and New York City are known for having many job opportunities and luring people in with promising careers. Whereas in Detroit, it's known to be quite hard to find employment. These cities have gone on a long journey to get to where they're at today. I'll be discussing Detroit's history from around 1880 to 1910 and comparing it to the way Chicago and New York City was in the book, Sister Carrie written by Theodore Dreiser.

1. The American city was changed drastically in the first half of the 20th century with the beginnings of the industrial revolution and the ongoing flow of foreigners into an already crowded United States.

into a pattern of lines. When I walked in the street, lights from stores and

Many things emerged in cities because that was where most people worked and was the greatest population place. Hull House allowed for better working conditions

Historically, Chicago has been and always will be a city of change both industrially and agriculturally to the metropolis we know and revere today with skyscrapers and culture abound. In order for the city to become the industrial hub, changes were made to the natural landscapes to accommodate business and residency. Steel became the staple good, and green spaces were demolished during the expansion of industry in the Calumet region by the masses in the creation of steel for railroad tracks and structural steel for commercial buildings. For geographical ambiance, The Calumet region of Chicago is consisted of the following neighborhoods: Burnside, Calumet Heights, East Side, Hegewisch, and Pullman, South Chicago, and South Deering. In this

The thought of Chicago hosting the world’s fair would be daunting at first, but it could turn around the reputation of Chicago from one of a city of gloom and darkness, to one of a city of light and progress from the Great Chicago fire of 1871, and that city would be fascinating for years to come. Chicago would get an economic shot in the arm from the revenue that it would get from hosting the 1893 World Fair and it would make Chicago into a great city of America. The event and also the transformation that would happen to the city of Chicago would not have happened if it would not be for one great man who had taken up the challenge to make sure to host this 1893 World fair.

The first chapter introduces Chicago, in the 1800s as a place where flocks of single women are coming to Chicago looking for jobs. This city was described as very unsafe. Two people a day, on average, died at railroad crossings, disease was very common, and people died from

The Artificial River, a well thought of 177 paged book written by the author Carol Sheriff whom at the time was an graduate at Yale University and finished it off while an assistant professor at William and Mary. This compelling book captures and emphasis the success and downfall the Erie canal has brought to the people. Sheriff has a clear notion that “progress” viewed differently through the eyes of conflicting people and status. What one envisioned the Canal turn out to be fluctuated from another. Progress to them meant in large part men and women take apart an active role in the community that they are in which the construction of the Erie canal consisted of people doing just that. She apprehended that whomever supported the canal had some dream and hope to actively be apart a wider range or market exchange. In Sheriff words she says that progress would play a central role in defining Northern sectional identity in decades. The book will explore six topics which are titled Vision of Progress, The Triumph of Art over Nature, Reducing time and distance, Politics of land and water, Politics of Business and The Perils of Progress all of which I will touch on throughout the paper.

The growing industry of travel in the United States can be somewhat attributed to the massive birth of railroads in the 18th century. Incredibly fast movement of both goods and people along rails has changed how business plan expansion, where people live, how ideas and knowledge move around the continent, as well as how people travel for pleasure. This paper details the development of the locomotive and railroad over the 18th century, describes the societal and economic impact of railroads, and lists the desires reflected within the United States that led to the advent of railroads.

The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the most ambitious engineering projects, economic stimulants, and efficient methods of transportation in the early United States. If completed, the United States would be truly be united from east to west. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the Transcontinental Railroad helped develop new opportunities for many aspects of American life.

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the role of the water in the American society was significant. The countries were seeking measures and instruments that would allow them to expand the existing territory in order to gain more access to the rivers and oceans. In this paper, I will try to explain the importance of water as a viable resource for the American people in colonial America, and the lengths it went to in order to obtain it.

Chicago in the 1920s was a turning point for the development of ethnic neighborhoods. After the opening of the first rail connection from New York to Chicago in the 1840s, immigration sky rocketed from that point on. Majority of the immigrants to Chicago were Europeans. The Irish, Italians, eastern European Jews, Germans, and Mexicans were among the most common ethnicities to reside in Chicago. These groups made up the greater part of Chicago. The sudden increase in immigration to Chicago in the 1920s soon led to an even further distinguished separation of ethnicities in neighborhoods. The overall development of these neighborhoods deeply impacted how Chicago is sectioned off nowadays. Without these ethnicities immigrating to Chicago

¬¬Portland, Oregon, a city known for its abundance of unique neighborhoods, lively downtown and natural beauty, experienced major transformations during the past fifty years due to an influx of population growth that led the city to go from a modest 370,000 people to over 500,000 people today. Portland was forced to make some key urban planning decisions to accommodate its growing population, which ultimately forced expansion of its network of public transportation systems. The city’s actions toward suburban growth created the organized and prosperous Portland of today.