ten events that shaped the 20th century american city

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P L A N N I N G C O M M I S S I O N E R S J O U R N A L / N U M B E R 3 0 / S P R I N G 1 9 9 8

F E AT U R E

Ten Events That Shaped the 20th CenturyAmerican City

by Laurence Gerckens, AICP1 1847: THE BEGINNINGOF MASSIVE IMMIGRATIONS

Between 1865 and 1917 more than25 million people immigrated to theUnited States. Starting in 1846-47,American immigration increased sharply, driven first by the Irish potatoblight and subsequently by failed democ-racy movements in Europe. In the 1850s,2,598,000 immigrated to America; the1860s and ‘70s brought 5,127,000 more,while the 1880s and the ‘90s would bringanother 8,935,000. Even higher rates ofimmigration — over 8,000,000 new resi-dents per decade — followed until theFirst World War.

Early immigrants found homes onthe farms, but the mechanization of agriculture initiated by the mass manu-facture of the mechanical horse-drawnreaper by Cyrus Hall McCormick in

1850 resulted in drastic reduction in theneed for farm labor. Later immigrants,finding little security in farming, congre-gated in cities, where the factory systemhad created a demand for a large mass ofrelatively unskilled labor. By 1900, NewYork City tenements housed 1,500,000people.

Immigrants being given a mental test at EllisIsland and a 1905 view of the Main Building ofEllis Island where millions of immigrants were processed before their entrance.into America.

Above and below. Tenement interior layout andexterior view. From: Jacob Riis’ famous exposé,How the Other Half Lives.

Massive immigration, mechanizationof the farms, and the factory system cre-ated an urban complex consisting ofdense multi-storied factories in the citycenter intermingled with rapidly andoften poorly constructed multi-storiedtenements, the homes of millions ofrecently arrived Americans that becamethe focus of 20th century slum clearanceand urban redevelopment programs.

Editor’s Note: Over the years I’ve foundthat many citizen planners are quite interest-ed in broader issues concerning America’sland use and development pattern. I thoughtit might be beneficial to provide PCJ readerswith some historical perspective — to helpsee how we’ve gotten to where we are. Plan-ning historian Larry Gerckens (who has pre-viously contributed several articles to thePCJ) generously accepted the challenge oftrying to provide an overview of some of thekey historical events that have shaped ourcities. Obviously, it’s no easy task to sum upcomplex events in a few sentences. Neverthe-less, I think you’ll find that Gerckens ably metthe challenge.

As a follow-up to this article, Gerckens ispreparing two additional short articles for thePCJ: one examining the most significant fail-ures in 20th century American urbanism, theother looking at key planning success stories.I hope that by looking back, this series of arti-cles will help us better understand the forcesthat have shaped — and in many ways con-tinue to shape — our cities and towns.

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Tenement Housing“The cleansing of the Augean stables

was a small task compared to the cleans-ing of New York’s 82,000 tenement hous-es, occupied by nearly three millions ofpeople, representing every nationality andevery degree in the social scale.…

Some of the conditions which are foundin these buildings surpass imagination. Itdoes not seem possible that humanbeings can actually live under them andretain the least vestige of health. Manycases have been found where the plumb-ing fixtures have been removed and thepipes left open, permitting sewer gas tofind its way into the apartments and per-meate the building. In some of the hous-es, where the owner has not employed aresponsible janitor or housekeeper, thetenants have used the dumbwaiter shaftas a chute for the disposal of rubbish,fecal matter, and garbage… In some ofthese houses the water closets have beenstopped up for weeks, the bowls over-flowing and the floors covered.”

From: First Report of the Tenement House Depart-ment of the City of NewYork (New York: 1903)5-7.

3 1886: INVENTION OFTHE ELECTRIC TROLLEY CAR

In 1886, J. Van Depoele put thefirst successful electric trolley carinto operation in Montgomery, Ala-bama. It did for the upper-middle class what the earlier steam locomotivedid for the wealthy: it gave them readyaccess to the perimeter of the city, per-mitting them to remove themselvesfrom the urban poor and the filth andugliness of the urban-industrial environ-ment.

The electric trolley car allowed forthe creation of higher income-class cor-ridors extending outward from the citycenter, removing from the city center allbut the lower-middle- and the lower-income. With this came development ofnew retail centers and services at trolleystops beyond the city center — such asShaker Square outside of Cleveland.Finer homes and apartments lined trol-ley routes, which provided prestigiouslocations that were both convenient totransportation and highly visible.

Land in the quadrants between thebranches of the trolley system (beyond afour-to-eight block walking distancefrom the trolley lines) commonlyremained undeveloped for residentialuse and was often used for foundries,slaughter houses, garbage dumps, and,in the 1920s, the first close-in airports.Many of the residential trolley corridorsof the early 1900s became strip commer-cial corridors when the private automo-bile replaced the station-stop focusedtrolley car.

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2 1885: INTRODUCTIONOF THE STEEL-FRAMED

“SKYSCRAPER”With the construction of a nation-wide system of railroads focused onChicago as a central distributionpoint and creation of an immense internal market for goods throughimmigration, land prices in downtownChicago skyrocketed. In order to prof-itably utilize such expensive land,income from multi-floor rentals wasneeded. Architect William Le BaronJenny’s ten-story Home Insurance Build-ing, built in Chicago in 1885, was thefirst tall building constructed utilizingthe principles of modern “skyscraper”construction. The building had cast ironand steel beams and girders supportingeach floor that were fastened togetherand bolted to cast iron and steelcolumns, creating a cage-like metalframe that acted as the main load-bear-ing members of the building.

This system of construction com-bined with a safe passenger elevator (asteam-driven elevator with a safetybrake had been patented by ElishaGraves Otis in 1861) made the modernhigh-rise structure possible, resulting inthe familiar densely built cluster of busi-ness towers that constituted the skylineof the American city throughout the20th century. A

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Trolleys like this onefrom Rock Island, Illinois, could be foundin cities across the U.S. at the turn of the century.

A yard water closet, photographed by the NewYork City Tenement Housing Department.Drawing of Clinton J. Warren’s Unity Building,

Chicago, 1891, showing the iron and steel frameconstruction. From: Industrial Chicago (Good-speed Publishing Co., 1891).

4 1893: THE COLUMBIANEXPOSITION

Over 27 million people attendedChicago’s Columbian Exposition,the great world’s fair of 1893. Visi-tors to the “The White City,” as the fair was often called, were stirred by themajestic grouping of public buildingsand their associated open spaces andplazas — designed as a unity andplanned both functionally and esthetical-ly for the benefit of the citizen-visitor.Brilliantly lit by Edison’s electric lightsand kept immaculately clean, the all-white composition stood in marked con-trast to the sooty blackness and disorderof Chicago and other large Americancities.

Architect Daniel Hudson Burnham,of Burnham and Root, coordinated thedesign and construction of the fair. Heprovided for generous and attractivepublic parks and plazas between theexhibit buildings, baby changing stationsand other amenities to meet the needs ofvisitors, efficient transportation both toand within the fair, and an inspiring and

His Ford Motor Company, organized in1903, focused on producing a simple andinexpensive automobile. Following lim-ited success with his “Model N,” heintroduced the “Model T” in 1908. Thissturdy black vehicle, with its 4-cylinder20-horsepower gasoline engine, sold for$825. More than 10,000 were sold in itsfirst year of production. With salesapproaching 200,000 a year, Ford intro-duced the moving mass assembly linesystem at his plant in Highland Park,Michigan in 1914.

soul-elevating public environmentembellished with reflecting pools, ter-races, and sculpture. Millions came tothe fair and for the first time experiencedwhat an American city could be: beauti-ful, clean, healthful, functional, efficient,cultured, and people-centered.

Millions left the fair determined torealize some part of that potential in theirown home town. Businessmen returnedto their commercial clubs to promote“city plans” for the improvement of theircommunities and to promote state legis-lation that would permit their cities toplan for the future. Based on this enthu-siasm for public improvement, Burnham,the “Father of American City Planning,”would: guide the re-planning of Wash-ington, D.C.; chair the development of acivic-center plan for Cleveland; draft fullcity plans for Manila and San Francisco;and prepare the first American metropol-itan regional plan, the Chicago Plan of1909, which would set the stage for long-range community planning in America.

5 1908: DEVELOPMENTOF THE INEXPENSIVE

AUTOMOBILE

Henry Ford, chief engineer for theEdison Electric Company in Detroit,built his first automobile in 1896.

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Columbian Exposition“It was indeed worth a journey of a

thousand miles to stand on the northbridge of the great lagoon… here is suchaccord between the parts and the wholedesign that every column, every section,every angle is an object of grace and dig-nity… If any fault is to be found with thisColumbian Exposition, it will be onaccount of the inability of the humanmind to compass and appreciate it.”

— C.C. Buel, writing for The Century magazine,1893.

“The fair! The fair! A city of palaces setin spaces of emerald, reflected in shininglengths of water which stretch in undulat-ing lines under the arches of marblebridges… The results stand to-day… a vision and foretaste of how the worldwill one day build in earnest.”

— Candace Wheeler, writing for Harper’s NewMonthly Magazine, May 1893.

Ten Events…continued from page 13


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View across the west end of the Main Basin, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893.

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In response to the influx of the auto-mobile onto the American scene, andrecognizing the need for better roadsconnecting the cities of America, Con-gress passed the first Federal Aid High-way Act in 1916. The Act provided fortwo-lane concrete roads connecting all of the urban centers of America,replacing the rutted mud-paths of anearlier era while creating analternative to the railroad forinter-city transportation.

By 1927, when productionof the “Model T” ended,America had become an auto-mobile society — and thelandscape was rapidly starting tochange. The auto-oriented suburbanshopping center, exemplified by the J.C.Nichols Company’s Country Club Plazain Kansas City, Missouri, had become areality. The first American new town accessible only by automobile,Mariemont, Ohio, was under construc-tion. More significantly, suburban devel-opment, freed from the geographicconstraints of trolley line location,began to spread cities to previously ruralhinterlands. This residential expansion,characterized by small homes on narrowlots, located side-by-side along a grid-iron of streets, seemed to march to thehorizon.

When I got to the outskirts of Mt.Clemens, there was a railroad track with avery slow moving train. I brought thethrottle up as far as I could to slow itdown, but no, the caboose was still infront of me and I had to put the breaks on.It stalled. I got out and started crankingand the brakeman who was standing theresaid “Why did you stall it?” I told himevery time I put the brakes on, it stalls. Hesaid “Lift up that emergency brake andthen it won’t stall.” I said “Thank you!”

I headed out of town to 23 Mile Road, acountry road, and after a short distance Ihad a flat tire. I looked and found that Ididn’t have a jack or a pump so I hailed afarmer coming by who stopped and loanedme a jack and a pump. He waited patientlywhile I repaired the tube. I went on toAlgonac on the St. Clair River. I blew boththe tire and the tube as I reached town. Ididn’t have a spare, so I drove on the rimup to Robert’s Landing on the river, putthe sign down signaling the car ferry tocross the river and pick me up. …

I started on my way to Wallaceburg,Ontario. I soon picked up a hitchhiker.

When I arrived in Wallaceburg, I stopped,pulled up the emer-gency brake and put thebrake on. The hitchhik-er said, “What are youdoing that for?” and I said I do that because Ididn’t want to stall it.He said, “You don’t haveto do that. Put yourclutch in halfway, withyour brake on, and youwon’t stall it. When you

want to back up, you do the same thing,put your clutch in halfway and put yourreverse in.” I said, “Thank you!”

I went in to Wallaceburg and I pulledinto a tire shop, told them that I needed atire but I didn’t have any money. He said“Do you know anyone around here?” andI said, “Yes, the farm right outside of townare relatives of mine.” So he called themup and the kinfolk said, “Yes, that’s o.k.,give him a tire.” So the dealer installed itand there I was, hell bent for Mitchells Bay,running on all four tires, with 75 cents inmy pocket and the best part… I knew howto drive a Model T.”

Reprinted by Permission , MODEL T TIMES Model T Ford Club International

The Model-T

HENRY FORD

“It wasn’t until 1909, after years of argu-ing with his partners, that Ford put out hisfirst Model T.… That season he sold morethan ten thousand tin lizzies, ten yearslater he was selling almost a million ayear.… In 1913 they established theassemblyline at Ford’s. That season the

profits were something like twen-tyfive million dollars, but they hadtrouble in keeping the men on thejob, machinists didn’t seem to like itat Ford’s.…

Henry Ford as an old man…bought the Wayside Inn near Sud-bury, Massachusetts, he had the new

highway where the newmodel cars roaredand slithered and hissed oilily past (thenew noise of the automobile),

moved away from the door, put back the old bad road, so that everything might be the way it used to be, in the days of horses and buggies.”

From: John Dos Passos, The Big Money (1933)

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HOW I LEARNED TODRIVE A MODEL “T” FORD

by Percy T. Newman

“In August, 1924, I was seventeen yearsold. My uncle had bought a new Model TFord and wanted to sell me his 1916 ModelT for $40.00. I bought it, providing hewould teach me how to drive it. He said“Pull back the emergency brake, push thefirst pedal in, feed the gas to it and thenwhen you release-away you go. The middlepedal is to back up and the third pedal isthe brake.” I left Detroit, Michigan, headingfor Mitchells Bay, Ontario, a distance ofabout 70 miles. His parting words were“Bon Voyage.”…


Below: View of the Country Club Plaza in KansasCity, Missouri.

Navigating the Lincoln Highway in Iowa.

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6 1916: ADOPTION OFTHE NEW YORK CITY

ZONING CODE

With the automobile permittingaccess everywhere around the city,and with the introduction of inex-pensive electric motors in light manufacturing facilitating the use ofmulti-story warehouse lofts and busi-ness spaces for production industry,land use conflicts intensified. The publicdanger created by the invasion of lightindustry into a district built for storagewas made tragically clear by the 1911“Triangle Fire” in New York. Scores diedas a result of the lack of fire escapes in abuilding designed and constructed foran entirely different use.

The Triangle Fire, coupled with pub-lic furor over the construction of theEquitable Building — an immense bulkthat cut off all light from the lower floorsof buildings for blocks around —emboldened New York City to under-take the control of private land develop-ment and use through comprehensivezoning. The legal basis for the New YorkCity Zoning Code had it roots in theU.S. Supreme Court’s 1876 decision inMunn v. Illinois, in which the Court firstexpounded on the power of states toregulate private industry. Moreover, theSupreme Court had approved local regu-lation of the height of buildings in Welchv. Swasey (in 1909) and building set-backs and yards in Eubank v. Richmond(in 1912), and implied the constitution-ality of land use zoning in Hadacheck v.Sebastian (in 1915).

The New York City Zoning Code setthe stage for Cincinnati to become, in1925, the first major American city toofficially adopt a long-range compre-hensive plan. The Cincinnati plan inte-grated future land uses (both public andprivate), transportation systems, andplans for utilities and public facilities ina policy document to be enforcedthrough zoning laws. The U.S. SupremeCourt validated the approaches taken by

in the Asch Building. On our floor alonewere two hundred and thirty. Most of uswere crazy with fear and there was greatconfusion. Some one broke out the glasspart of the door with something hard andheavy, I suppose the head of a machineand I climbed or was pulled thru… andran downstairs to the sixth floor, wheresome one took me down to the street.

… Altogether 145 were killed and ofthese 120 belonged on the ninth floor.When firemen broke open the door on theWashington place side they found fiftybodies piled up there. I, who worked onthe eighth floor, was unhurt, except forthe shock, and will go to work again at thesame business as soon as I can get a job ina fireproof factory.”

“I AM APPALLED” New York Governor Dix

The Police Commissioner points to the Mayor who gripes at the Governor, “I am appalled,” who sets on the State Labor Commissioner who blames the National Fire Underwriters who turn on the Fire Commissioner who cites the “City Beautiful” (for finding fire escapes ugly) who then faults the Architects who place it on Tenement Housing who says failure of the Health Department who then proclaim conspiracy between the Utility Companies and the Police Commissioner.

From: Chris Llewellyn, Fragments From the Fire(Huron, OH: Bottom Dog Press, 1997) © reprinted with permission.

Editor’s Note: You can get a copy of Llewellyn’sexcellent collection of poems about the TriangleFire, winner of the 1986 Walt Whitman Award,from Bottom Dog Press, c/o Firelands College,Huron, OH 44839 for $10.00.

The Triangle Fire FIRE!This first-hand account by Rosey Safran, oneof the Triangle Waist Company workers, ranin the April 20, 1911 edition of the New Yorknewspaper, The Independent:

“I, with a number of other girls, was inthe dressing room on the eighth floor ofthe Asch Building, in Washington place, at4.40 o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday,March 25, when I heard somebody cry“Fire!” I left everything and ran for thedoor on the Washington place side. Thedoor was locked and immediately therewas a great jam of girls before it. The firewas on the other side, driving us awayfrom the only door that the bosses had leftopen for us to use in going in or out. Theyhad the doors locked all the time for fearthat some of the girls might steal some-thing.…

The fire had started on our floor andquick as I had been in getting to the Wash-ington place door the flameswere already blazing fiercelyand spreading fast. If wecouldn’t get out we wouldall be roasted alive. Thelocked door that blocked uswas half of wood; the upperhalf was thick glass. Somegirls were screaming, somewere beating the door withtheir fists, some were tryingto tear it open. There wereseven hundred of us girls atthe Triangle Waist Compa-ny, which had three floors,the eighth, ninth and tenth,

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Photos from the Triangle Fire.

New York, Cincinnati, and a number of other pioneering communities, in its landmark 1926 Euclid v. Amblerdecision.

7 1929: THE STOCKMARKET CRASH

With the collapse of the Americaneconomy at the end of the 1920s,massive unemployment led thefederal government to undertake scores of public works projects — manyof which still benefit the nation morethan a half-century later. The CivilianConservation Corps engaged in large-scale reforestation and construction ofmetropolitan, regional, and nationalpark facilities. The federal governmentbuilt major dams (such as Boulder andGrand Coulee) which provided thecheap electricity that powered thearrival of great city status of Phoenix,Los Angeles, Seattle, Tacoma, and othercities of the Southwest and PacificNorthwest. Similarly, the great dams andelectrification projects of the TennesseeValley Authority provided the low-costpower that made the New South a reali-ty during and after the Second WorldWar.

In response to massive home mort-gage defaults during the Great Depres-sion, Congress, in 1934, created theFederal Housing Administration. Con-gress mandated that the FHA “encour-age improvement in housing standardsand conditions” and “provide a systemof mutual mortgage insurance to pro-mote small home construction as ameans of creating jobs for the unem-ployed.” The minimum standards estab-lished for an FHA-insured homemortgage facilitated quick resale ofdefaulted dwelling units by assuringthat units would be of a size and qualitydesired by those of above averagemeans. FHA policies through the post-World War II years led to the emergenceof the single family home on a suburbanlot as the dominant American dwelling— a dwelling type to which Americansof below-average means would generallynot have access.

Dams

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: ADDRESS AT BONNEVILLE DAM

September 28, 1937

“Truly, in the construction of this damwe have had our eyes on the future of theNation. Its cost will be returned to thepeople of the United States many timesover in the improvement of navigation andtransportation, the cheapening of electricpower, and the distribution of this powerto hundreds of small communities within agreat radius.

As I look upon Bonneville Dam today, Icannot help the thought that instead ofspending, as some nations do, half theirnational income in piling up armaments

and more armaments forpurposes of war, we inAmerica are wiser in usingour wealth on projects likethis which will give usmore wealth, better livingand greater happiness forour children.”

ROLL ON COLUMBIA

by Woody Guthrie

Roll on, Columbia, roll onRoll on, Columbia, roll onYour power is turning our

darkness to dawnSo roll on, Columbia, roll on

Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through

Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew

Canadian Northwest to the oceans so blueRoll on Columbia, roll on…

At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks

The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks

Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docksSo roll on, Columbia, roll on

And on up the river is Grand Coulee DamThe mightiest thing ever built by a manTo run the great factories and water the land So roll on, Columbia, roll on…

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Bonneville Dam complex, along the Columbia River, as it looks today.

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The Norris Dam on the Clinch River in northeast Tennessee was one of a number of Tennessee ValleyAuthority projects initiated during the Depression years.

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8 1940-45: THE SECONDWORLD WAR

Faced with the prospect of Ameri-can involvement in the expandingEuropean war — and the immedi-ate need for large-scale defense industry housing — Congress, in 1940,passed the Lanham Act. The Act autho-rized the federal government to contractout to private industry to build tempo-rary wartime housing, providing $150million for that purpose, and granted useof the federal government’s power ofeminent domain to acquire the sites. Incontrast, during the First World War thefederal government created government-owned nonprofit corporations to build

housing but lacked the broader commu-nity planning and design principlesreflected in many post World War Idevelopments.

During the Second World War, newindustries typically located at the subur-ban perimeter of cities, building single-floor production facilities on cheap land.This set the pattern for a post-war disper-sal of production industry away from citycenters.

The war left the continental UnitedStates virtually unscathed and with abooming industrial economy, while vir-tually all of America’s pre-war competi-tors had suffered the destruction of theirindustrial capacity. This put the UnitedStates in command of the world econo-my, ushering in a half century of Ameri-can prosperity.

permanent new towns for defense indus-try workers. Those federally constructednew towns provided well-built economi-cal housing and public facilities in a totalplanned community environment — andbecame the models for the best projectsundertaken by private enterprise in the1920s and ‘30s.

Under the Lanham Act the resultswere quite different. Kaiser, on the WestCoast, built Vanport, Oregon, consistingof 600 identical, bleak apartment build-ings housing 40,000 residents. On theEast Coast, Levitt learned how to massproduce single-family detached housingunits at low cost. Carrying these systemsover to the peacetime economy at theend of the war resulted in creation of anumber of Levittowns and their emula-tors — projects which provided needed

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Levittown“I’ll never forget those years. The fifties.

The early sixties. We were all going thesame direction… thanks to Big Bill Levittwe all had a chance. You talk aboutdreams. Hell, we had ours. We had ourslike nobody before or since ever hadtheirs. SEVEN THOUSAND BUCKS!ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS DOWN! We were cowboys out there. We were the pioneers.”

From: W. D. Wetherell, The Man Who LovedLevittown (Pittsburgh: The University of Pitts-burgh Press, 1985). Reprinted by permission.©1985 W. D. Wetherell.



On-Line Comments“The only event missing is ourentrance to the Information Age

and the invention of the computer/personalcomputer. These machines have shaped ourlives in the past 40-50 years. Because they cando so much in such a short period of time, wehave become dependent on them to take careof almost everything. They have also condi-tioned us into thinking that anything can bedone in an instant. As we know, planning andimplementation take time.”

— Barbara Sweet, Hyde Park, New York

“This is a very interesting article — I enjoyed reading it and thinking about othertrends or events to consider. Among themwould be the change in household structureincluding the entrance of women in the work-place and the movement of household activi-ties such as sewing, cooking, etc. to themarket place; the replacement of small locallyowned retail with large chain style stores; theincrease in time and resources devoted to edu-cation and delayed entry of young people intothe workforce; computers, and television —just to name a few.”

— Lucie Vogel, Charlottesville, Virginia

“I read with interest Mr. Gercken’s 10events that influenced the development of ourcities. Although I’m sure everyone has eventsto add, there is one omission which you mightconsider. The single most important develop-ment for the creation of towns and large cities

was the creation of systems to provide clean,potable water to large numbers of people. Thisissue of clean drinking water was a huge prob-lem for towns until the mid to late 1800’s. Bythe 1920’s, with George Spalding’s invention ofthe activated carbon method of filtration at theHackensack Water Company site here inOradell, New Jersey, the issue of safe, drink-able water became a non-issue for most majorcities.”

— Maggie Harrer, Oradell, New Jersey

“I agree the ten ‘events’ are pivotal ones.However, I think the elevator was as importantas any, and more important than many of theevents mentioned. In addition to enabling theskyscraper, the elevator enabled vertical indus-trial development that was critical to the mul-tilevel spatial geometry of the 19th centuryindustrial city and subsequently to theachievement of the spatial density that makesa modern central city possible.”

— Jerald Powell, AICP, Portland, Oregon

"The telephone made quick, instant busi-ness communication possible, which simulta-neously led to dispersion and concentration. It was now possible to do business in manydifferent cities which broke from the one-capi-tal-city model of Europe. But with quick,hour-to-hour and minute-to-minute interac-tive transactions possible, it made people wantto be physically close to each other to actuallydeliver on the plans they'd make by phone."

— Wayne A. Lemmon, Silver Spring, Maryland

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Levittown under construction.

9 1950+: THE COLD WAR

With the Soviet political confronta-tions that followed the end of theSecond World War and initiation of the “Korean Police Action” in 1950, the United States experienced thecreation of a permanent military estab-lishment for the first time in its history.Large scale military expenditures result-ed in virtually every American city gain-ing from employment and expendituresat nearby military bases, defense indus-tries, or supply depots. Wartime invest-ments made in the South and the Westwere continued and expanded, at theexpense of reinvestment in the oldercities of the Northeast.

The federal Housing Act of 1954promised the “renewal” of the city as awhole, while engaging in wholesale cen-tral area demolitions. Federal govern-ment policy with regard to housing the

Ike Looks Back“On June 26, 1956 I signed [the Federal

Aid Highway Act] into law. It was not onlythe most gigantic federal undertaking inroad-building in the century and a halfsince the federal government got into thisfield by improving the National Pikebetween Cumberland, Maryland, andWheeling, West Virginia — it was thebiggest peacetime construction project ofany description ever undertaken by theUnited States or any other country.… thebig feature of the act was the amount itearmarked for the widening and improv-ing of our interstate and defense highwaysystem, a forty-one thousand-mile net-work of roads linking nearly all majorcities with a population of fifty thousandor more.…

The amount of concrete poured to formthese roadways would build eighty HooverDams or six sidewalks to the moon. Tobuild them, bulldozers and shovels wouldmove enough dirt and rock to bury all of

Connecticut two feet deep.More thanany singleaction by thegovernmentsince the endof the war, thisone wouldchange the faceof America withstraightaways,cloverleaf turns,bridges, andelongated park-ways. Its impacton the Americaneconomy — the jobs it wouldproduce in manu-facturing and con-struction, the ruralareas it would openup — was beyondcalculation.”

From: Dwight David Eisenhower, Mandate forChange 1953-1956 (New York: Doubleday, 1963)548-549.

urban poor shifted from providing “adecent home for every American” to“warehousing the poor” in projects likePruitt-Igoe in St. Louis and CabriniGreen in Chicago.

The Interstate High-way System, begun in1956 as a defense high-way system, knit togeth-er auto-mobile Americaand stimulated theperipheral expansionof metropolitan areas.The Interstate systemalso fed the growth ofhuge over-the-roadtrucking fleets. At thesame time, many ofAmerica’s railroadsslipped into disre-pair, abandonment,and bankruptcy.

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Dedication of Wisconsin’s first interstate: a seven mile stretch of I-94 in Waukesha County.

Interstate interchange in South San Francisco

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Above: Advertisement for the First NationalBank of Boston, appeared in 1962 NationalGeographic.


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belt perimeter of the city, helped pave theway for the explosive growth of “edgecities” — the preferred site for researchand development facilities, corporateoffices, and upscale retail activity locatedin close proximity to the suburban andexurban homes of the more well-to-do.

SUMMING UP:

The evolution of the form, character,and scale of the 20th century Americancity was fueled by the interjection of a

vast mass of immigrants into an urbanfabric set free of earlier constraints byinnovations in technology. The Americancity was inspired at the turn-of-the-cen-tury by a “White City” vision of goodmunicipal order, and then molded byreactions to socioeconomic adversity,military confrontation, and the initiationof public control of private development.�

Laurence Gerckens,national historian for theAmerican Institute of Cer-tified Planners, founder ofThe Society for AmericanCity and Regional Plan-ning History, and emeritusprofessor at The Ohio StateUniversity, teaches Ameri-can urban planning history as an adjunct professorat the University of Michigan, Kansas State Uni-versity, and Goucher College, Baltimore. Gerckenshas contributed several articles to the PlanningCommissioners Journal, most recently, “Single-Family-Only Zones” (a look back at the origins ofsingle-family zoning) in PCJ #23 (Summer 1996).

10 1958: INTRODUCTION OFCOMMERCIAL JET AIRCRAFT

The Boeing Company delivered thefirst American commercial jet trans-port, a 707-120, to Pan AmericanWorld Airways in 1958. The Boeing707-120 could carry 181 passengers andhad a range of 3,000 miles — a sharpincrease in capacity and range from thepiston-driven Douglas DC-7C which itdisplaced. The new jets were economicalon long-range flights — when they werefull — leading to promotion of new masstravel markets. Large-scale arrivals anddepartures from new airports construct-ed to accommodate the larger landingstrips, taxiing, and terminal require-ments of jet travel shifted the point ofarrival at the American city from the rail-road station and the highway to theregional airport.

By 1980, air transport had assumedthe same stimulative role in the U.S.economy that the railroads had provideda hundred years earlier. The airportbecame a regional center with its ownrestaurants, hotels, and conference facili-ties. The regional airport and its relatedinterstate highway that provided easyaccess primarily to and from the outer-

Ten Events that Shaped the 20th Century American Citycontinued from page 19

O’Hare International Airport.

Fleet of jets shown in a United Airlines advertise-ment promoting its new Los Angeles “satellite”terminal, appeared in 1962 National Geographic.

ten events that shaped the 20th century american city

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