What Were The Dangers Of The Second Industrial Revolution

At the time of the Second Industrial Revolution, the average American’s lifestyle changed greatly. This period of urbanization, which lasted from about 1870-1914, brought many new inventions and people to the United States. However, it also created many new dangers due to the vast amount of people in a crowded city area. These dangers include filthy living spaces, disease, unsafe working conditions, and fires. Therefore, the changes caused by the Second Industrial Revolution were mostly negative. The disgusting living conditions were certainly a negative issue at the time. In order to create homes for the influx of new immigrants, old one-family homes were changed into tenement buildings that could fit three or four families. These tenements,

With the expansion of cities, there were more workers needed to build all the new skyscrapers and buildings. These workers, called roughnecks, had to work on the support beams of the buildings, twenty to thirty feet above the ground. There was no safety equipment or harnesses, so there was nothing to stop the workers from falling. In fact, two out of five roughnecks died on the job. The pay was only four dollars. Factory jobs and sweatshops, whose workers were mainly teenage girls, weren’t much safer. They were paid even less for longer hours, some workers staying for over twelve hours. The factories were small and dirty, and the workers had little to no breaks. Some factory owners even locked the workers into the rooms and turned off the elevators. These conditions even caused fires, like the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911. The workers had no way of escaping this deadly fire. The workers were locked in, and the staircases collapsed. Many tried to jump out of the windows, but could not survive the fall. 146 people died. Another infamous fire was the Chicago Fire of 1871. About three hundred people died during the three days that it