American Urbanization In The 1800s

Urbanization in America

Business and industrialization centered on the cities in America like New York, Boston, and Chicago. The increasing number of factories created an immense need for labor which got people in rural areas to move to the city, and bringing immigrants from Europe to the United States. Urbanization changed America in many ways but specifically in a social and economic way leading to today’s America.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, urbanization was increasing at a startling rate. People found that it was cheaper to live in the city, for it was closer to most people's work. This attracted immigrants from all over weather it was to escape the political or religious injustice in their country or to just find a job. The

Many inventions came along, one of the most important being electricity. The first city to ever have street lights was in Wabash Indiana. Charles F. Brush wanted to test out the new “brush light” on a city and needed a city to do it. When people heard about this amazing invention the use of gas street lights was decreasing and electricity soon took its place. Fluorescent and incandescent lights became extremely popular during the 1930s and 1940s, when automobile travel began to flourish. A street with electric lights was referred to as a “white way” during the early 20th century. Part of New York City's Broadway was nicknamed the “Great White Way” due to the massive number of electric lights used on theater marquees lining the street.(Connie A Ress,

Many of the today's student leave for college in the city and rarely return back home to the small town they used to live in. It turns out the millennial generation is only advancing the demographic shift. In fact, this may be the most "bright lights, big city" generation in history. The top destination at the moment for this Generation is Washington, D.C., suburb of Arlington, Va., where their ranks grew by 82 percent between 2007 and 2013. Even though apartments and houses in the suburbs aren’t cheap, that is not what millennials are looking for. What matters to today's youth is the location and how convenient it is as in how are it is from school or the city center. (Beau Dure, 2014)

The urbanization of America has changed so many cities and city life. Many people’s culture has changed and lifestyle altered from living in a small rural area to a populated city. So many things good and bad happened with urbanization. Some of the bad being overpopulation. One cause of overpopulation is the many people illegally immigrating to America. This problem is being handled by increasing border patrol and improve the Visa work program. (FAIR,