Gilded Age

Cities expanded to sizes never seen before, masses of workers swarmed the streets, skyscrapers reached to the sky and electric lights banished the darkness, newly wealthy entrepreneurs built spectacular mansions…

A gilded age might appear to sparkle but beneath the surface lay corruption, poverty, crime, and great disparities in wealth between rich and poor.

Rapid Industrialization and Urbanization• caused immigrant neighborhoods and

tenements to become overcrowded

Reason for increased immigrationHope for better opportunities

Religious freedom

Escape from oppressive governmentAdventure

choices

• Tenements and Ghettos

• Political corruption (political machines)

Challenges faced by cities

Urban Problems• City living posed threats• crime• violence• fire• disease• pollution• murder rates went up• Contaminated city water came from improper

disposal of sewage.• -Typhoid fever• -Cholera

Pickpockets thrived in

urban cities

Urban Politics

In exchange for votes political machines and party bosses

provided these necessities.

• New political systems developed to meet urban problems.

• The Political Machine and the Party Boss• New city dwellers needed:

– Jobs– Housing– Food– Heat– Police Protection

Fraud• Party bosses controlled the city’s

finances.• Political Machines: Politicians grew

rich as a result of corruption. • Tammany Hall

* NY democratic political machine• William M. “Boss” Tweed: party boss

* Tammany Hall’s corrupt leader during the 1850s and 1860’s

The Nation Transformed

As millions continued to pour into the cities, engineers and architects

developed new approaches at housing and transporting people

Skyscrapers • Land prices went up giving owners

incentive to grow up rather than out.• Chicago’s ten-story Home Insurance

Building (1885) was the first skyscraper.

• New York’s Manhattan Island had more skyscrapers than any other city in the world.

Mass Transit• Various kinds of methods

developed:• Electric Trolley (Frank J.

Sprague 1887; Richmond, VA first to install)

• Elevated Railroads (Chicago)• Subway (New York City and

Boston)

The End