By Patrick Allitt, Emory University
The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a great period of inventions and technological transformations, and many of them did come to affect American urban life in a good way. One of them was the invention of streetcars, and the other was steel-girder-framed skyscrapers. While the invention of streetcars made it possible for cities to spread out, skyscrapers enabled the cities to grow upward.
Invention of Streetcars
The streetcars were first horse-drawn, then after 1890, they started to be electrified.
The invention of streetcars made it possible for cities to spread out, because now one could live further away from their place of work, and commute there rapidly by the streetcar, and then commute out again into the neighborhoods in the evening. That was one of the things that made it possible for cities to begin to diminish their very high population density.
Usually, cities spread by what’s called ‘ribbon development’, along the lines of the streetcar tracks, and then later on, sometimes transverse lines would join up two of these ribbons and enable the city areas gradually to fill out.
After 1900, the streetcars began to be complemented by bicycles, and then eventually by cars as well.
This is a transcript from the video series A History of the United States, 2nd Edition. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Skyscrapers
Another new technology in the American cities was steel-girder-framed skyscrapers. These enabled the cities to grow upward.
The skyscrapers depended on a series of inventions. One of the most crucial was the safety elevator. Primitive elevators have been in existence for as long as we’ve got records. The medieval cathedrals were built with them; just a simple winch over a pulley.
The great thing about the Elisha Otis safety elevator, which was first publicly tested in 1853 and patented a few years later, was this: If the cables holding the elevator broke, the elevator itself wouldn’t crash down the shaft and kill its occupants. It had a safety braking system, so it became much more reasonable to put faith in the elevator once the Elisha safety methods had been developed.
Steel Girder Frames and Plate Glass
The other great technological advances that made skyscraper building possible were steel girder frames, the basic way in which skyscrapers have been built ever since. A 10-story building made of steel and plate glass to fill in the spaces is incomparably lighter than a masonry building of the same height.
Of course, if we haven’t got an elevator, we can’t really make a building higher than about five or six floors, because of the sheer difficulty of getting up and down in it. Thus, steel girders and elevators together were the preconditions for skyscraper design.
The other great component of the relatively light skyscraper was plate glass. Until about 1870, it was difficult—really impossible—to make plate glass. Windows had to be very small, and when the first big plate-glass windows were made, they caused a rhapsodic sense of excitement that is difficult for us to recapture; to have that much light and that much clear expanse of glass was a thrilling thing.
Application of Skyscrapers
The first great application of skyscrapers came in Chicago. The Great Fire of Chicago was in 1871, and then the rebuilding of downtown Chicago came after that. A handful of innovative architects began to put skyscraper design into practice.
Louis Sullivan was probably the most famous. He lived from 1856 to 1924. He wrote: “Chicago had an intoxicating rawness, a sense of big things to be done, for big was the word. The Chicagoans were the crudest, rawest, most savagely ambitious dreamers and doers in the world,” and he was delighted to find the entrepreneurial savvy and willingness to take risks to create these massive new buildings. “With me,” said Sullivan, “architecture is not an art but a religion, and that religion is but a part of democracy.” He presided over the building of many of the most distinctive structures of Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s.
In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake gave a further impetus to the building of steel-frame buildings, because masonry buildings shattered; they’ve got no flexibility at all, whereas steel-framed buildings have got a lot of give, and they’re much less likely to collapse in an earthquake.
Urban Identity
One of the ways in which the new cities developed an urban identity was through two new things. One of them was major-league sports teams, which developed in the 1860s and 1870s. Once the nationwide railroad network had made it possible for the teams to visit one another, professional baseball and basketball and football became possible.
The other great novelty was city newspapers. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst were the two great popularizers of mass newspapers. They understood the importance of impassioned storytelling and simple, quick stories—as well as big headlines and sensationalism—so the people who were just at a low level of education could enjoy the popular press.
City government was the way in which city governments began to understand that they needed to spread the gospel of their own particular city, and look for ways to generate civic pride in their particular place, so that as the 20th century began, various indicators of urban improvement were clearly available.
Common Questions about Inventions and Technological Transformations
The invention of streetcars made it possible for cities to spread out, because now one could live further away from their place of work, and commute there rapidly by the streetcar, and then commute out again into the neighborhoods in the evening.
Louis Sullivan was probably the most famous architect to put skyscraper design into practice. He lived from 1856 to 1924, and presided over the building of many of the most distinctive structures of Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s.
One of the ways in which the new cities developed an urban identity was through two new things. One of them was major-league sports teams, which developed in the 1860s and 1870s, and the other was city newspapers.
