Rise Of Chicago Essay

482 Words2 Pages

The Rise of Chicago... The windy city, Chi-Town, Chi-raq, City in a Garden, all names for the city that´s population grew from 29,963 to 1,698,575 from the 1850’s to the 1900’s. Why you ask? Well, hopefully i’ll answer your question throughout this informative assignment. I believe the most important events that affected Chicago include the transcontinental railroad, the Great Chicago Fire, and the Great Migration. Keep in mind there are plenty more factors and reasons why Chicago went from a young, cramped city to a colossal, popular destination within a little more than fifty years, i’m just talking about the key ones!

The transcontinental railroad was a very important factor in the growth of Chicago. So, when the Golden Spike connected the rails, what had been an arduous journey of months now only took 10 days. In 1853, one could ride by train from New York to Chicago. Exactly a year later, the city was connected to the Mississippi River at Rock Island. This brought a very large amount of people to Chicago, leaving a huge impact on the population. The transcontinental railroad did not only affect Chicago, however, it made a huge difference all across the United States!

The Great Chicago Fire was one of the worst and also one of the best things to happen to the city. In October 1871, this fire destroyed one-third of Chicago, …show more content…

You got it, World War 1, which later caused the Great Migration! The Great Migration was the movement of six million African Americans out of rural, southern United States to urban, northwest, midwest, and western United States. Therefore, the city of Chicago gained a tremendous amount of people. Also, the African American population of Chicago grew from 2% to 33% after the Great Migration. Although it was a rough start, the city provided freedom from legally sanctioned racial discrimination. Without this movement, Chicago's African American industrial working class wouldn't