Hist 141 american urban. and ny
- 1. American Urbanization & New York City Andrew Lelja History 141 71154
- 2. New York: The Country and the City On September 2 nd , 1609, Henry Hudson was hired by the Dutch West India Company to find a faster route to the riches of oriental regions. He stumbled upon a large river mouth, and thought it may have been a route to China. The river eventually became the Hudson River, and the mouth became the largest and biggest harbor in the world. The only reason the Dutch founded New York was to make money and establish a trading post. New York was the first place where people from all over the world lived together in the same area. It is the most historic city in the United States because it was the first to have immigration, unionization, industrialization, rapid urban expansion, and multi-racial societies. By the end of the 19 th Century, it was the fastest growing city in the world.
- 3. New York: The Country and the City New York is such a natural location to make it one of the finest harbors on the Atlantic Ocean, it’s like an entrance to North America. The first inhabitants of Manhattan Island were Native Americans. The Indians greeted the Dutch to keep the hostility low, so the Dutch settled on the land among them. They widened their main traveling route, that eventually was called Broadway. The Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for 60 Guilds, but the Indians thought the purchase was only temporary. In 1643, they tried to tax the Indians, but this led the Indians to retaliate and fight for over year, a time known as “Year of the Blood.” Their colony was falling apart because the Hollanders didn’t really want to be there, it was just a business thing.
- 4. New York: The Country and the City In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was named Governor of New York to try and bring it back under control. Within weeks of being appointed, he banned drinking on Sundays, outlawed public knife fights, imposed fines for missing church, and fornicating with the Indians. The people resented him, but followed his rule so they wouldn’t be punished. Within 5 years, he has a built an established city with roads, walls, canals, windmills, schools, and jobs. The Dutch allowed any type of person to come there and work because they were there for business and to make money. On September 12 th , 1654, the first Rosh Hashanah service was held in New Amsterdam and it was part of oldest existing religion in new world. This also marked the beginning of the separation of church and state.
- 5. New York: The City of Tomorrow Around the turn of the century, New York had become the largest and most densely populated city in the world. From 1919-1924, New York was the most modern city made for millions of people. On the eve of the Great Depression, the unemployment was almost 2 million people, but two years later the number rose to 8 million, and a year later swelled to 13 million. This was the harshest time for the people of New York, and the city was unable to fulfill the needs of the people. There were no support funds coming in from the state or the federal government, so they had to borrow money.
- 6. New York: The City of Tomorrow James Walker was Mayor of the city for many years, but his term ended when they found out he and his administration were corrupt. Franklin D. Roosevelt had a hand in forcing him to resign, and this helped fuel his popularity in the presidential race. Fiorella La Guardia was the new Mayor, and he was a perfect fit because people loved him and he was a person of the people. FDR enacted the New Deal, which greatly funded New York City, helped La Guardia rebuild the city and try to pull it out of the Depression. The New Deal changed peoples outlook on the government, and it proved to them the government actually cares about its citizens and that they would come in and help them in a time of need. The New Deal was great for New York, but this also meant other cities in the U.S. were now going to get support from the government as well.
- 7. New York: The City of Tomorrow Robert Moses became known as the “Master Builder” of New York City. He was one of the greatest public works providers and helped shaped New York City for the next 50 years. During the 1920s, the most cars in the U.S. were concentrated in New York City, and at that time the city was not adequate for this many cars. He realized people wanted a mobile lifestyle, so he did just that. He was the first person to design and build highways and roads as we know them today. He created the “flow” of the roads, and essentially taught everyone else how to properly construct roads. He built a road out to Long Island, and for the first time this enabled an outdoor escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.
- 8. A Merger That Puts New York on Top The article is about whether the purchase of Time Warner by AOL, will make New York have the leading American global information technology. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, discovery of electricity, invention of the telephone, movies, wireless radio and television solidified New York's economic domination. Manhattan was to become the headquarters of the three major TV networks, and made lots of money from post-war commercials. New York built the Erie Canal and helped them work toward being the major hub for exports from the United States to England. The “triangle trade” allowed their commercial interest to control the cotton trade between the South and England. Once the digital revolution came around, cities on the West Coast became the dominators in the economy. AOL Time Warner was a good merger to happen in New York because that is a type of company useful to the East Coast. There will always be a rival between the West and East Coast to be the financial powerhouse.
- 9. The City in the Land of the Dollar Cities in the United States have a distinctive look, one that is shaped by their history of rapid growth, the predominance of business rather than government, the cultural ideal of the private house, and the relentless rush of the automobile; there is no mistaking Los Angeles for London. American cities are grids of long, straight streets with a commercial downtown of tall office buildings, surrounded by residential neighborhoods. Cities in Europe are of similar color and style, while American cities are a “free-for-fall” in design, placement of buildings and other structures. During the late 19 th Century, Chicago was the fastest growing city in the U.S. because of its location to the Great Lakes and the nations railroads, and formed by the great commercial and industrial expansion . After the Great Fire of 1871, Chicago rebuilt with a telephone system, electric streetcars, and steel-framed skyscrapers.
- 10. The City in the Land of the Dollar In 1943 in South Chicago, they constructed the White City of the Worlds Columbian Exposition. Its neoclassical buildings would resemble a city structure similar to Western America. The Chicago Fair inspired the "City Beautiful" movement, where planners wanted to set up cities like those of Europe. It worked for a little while until they realized America worked different with its highways, skyscrapers and gridded streets. Chicago was home to the first skyscraper, mainly with the help of the invention of the elevator. Steel was being used in the making of railroads, and they realized this same material could be made into I-beams to supports tall buildings. This led to the price of land in and around the city to skyrocket, forcing people to live outside the city, essentially making way for the first residential neighborhoods.
- 11. The City in the Land of the Dollar Cities now had a specific “downtown,” where all the buildings were used for commercial purposes. American cities now became known as places where you came to do business and make money. They started to build large parks so people could take breaks from the busy downtown to relax, and enjoy the tranquility of the park in the center of the hustle and bustle. This led to the development of parkways, which helped in urban growth and was an attractive setting for new residential developments. Chicago's Columbian Exposition provided a real and well-publicized demonstration of how the unruly American downtown could be tamed though a partnership of classical architecture, urban landscaping, and heroic public art.