Survey of Rural & Urban U.S. Demographics

Bullet Points in BOLD are eligible for final exam.

1524 Verrazzano sails into rugged forest on island, which becomes Manhattan
1630 Massachusetts Bay Co. establishes Boston , “a city on a hill”, within first year, wooden chimney burns down city, which leads to the first building code.
1653 New Amsterdam colonists fear native American attacks and construct defensive wall in Manhattan (what is now known as wall street)
Early look of new communities: Spanish built missions surrounded by vineyards and orchards. French built Trading Posts with church and government in center. Dutch built farming villages and towns with narrow windy streets, English built forts. New England had urban planning, individual lots connected to a common (publicly owned land), each family had share of corporation. Washington DC is designed using grids with intersections, diagonal avenues, town squares.
1682 First attempt at grid planning found in Philadelphia.
1713 Boston begins grading streets for water drainage.
1751 First police force, Philadelphia
1754 Tallest building in North America: Christ Church, Philadelphia , 200 ft.
1790 in first census, there are 24 cities (2500 people or more).
1793 Yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia causes 4000 deaths. Lack of Sanitary conditions a major concern, leads to first public water supply system.
1818 Public Elementary schools established in Boston.
1820’s ½ of urban population lives in either NY, Baltimore , Philadelphia and Boston , yet only 6% of populations lives in cities.
1822 Lowell MA becomes first designed manufacturing city, including dormitories at factories for young girls.
1825 Erie Canal opens
1827 Baltimore & Ohio railroad opens
1831 NYC, Gramercy Park , first planned neighborhood, where residents have keys to gated community.
1837 Buildings and paved streets make up 16% of Manhattan . Atlanta (first called Terminus) established at end of rail line.
1860 20% of US population lives in cities
1870 first elevated US railroad opens in NYC
1873 Cable cars begin in San Francisco
1877 Museum of Natural History opens in NYC
1882 NYC lit by electricity, 2 years later a law requires that wire be placed underground
1883 Brooklyn Bridge opens, Homes Insurance Building in Chicago is first skyscraper

1889 First electric elevators, Jane Addams opens Hull-House, first settlement house.

1890 NYC population is 2.5 million, 700 people per acre.
1893 Louisville creates field houses for kids to play in bad weather
1900 40% of citizens live in urban areas. 20 Thousand miles of street railroads.
1901 Andrew Carnegie donates 5.2 million dollars for NYC to build 65 public libraries. Today, there are more than 10,000 public libraries in the US
1905 one of the first suburbs, Shaker Heights , outside of Cleveland . Connected by rail line.
1909 Dan Burnham, architect, calls for city master plans. “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood”
1913 Pipeline carries 26 million gallons of water a day to LA from Sierra Nevada
1916 NYC passes first Urban zoning plan, requiring separation between houses and factories. Aqueduct provides NYC with 260 million gallons from Catskills.
1921 Federal Highway Act proposes all US cities be connected by highway.
1927 Holland Tunnel opens
1929 Stock Market Crash 1930 23 million cars are registered by US Population (123 million)
1931 GW Bridge and Empire State Building open (longest suspension bridge, tallest building at time)
1933 Federal Home Owners Loan Corporation, covers 1 million mortgages, lowers down payment from 50% to 10%.
1942 Emergency Price Control Act provides rent control

1947 William Levitt, completes first Levittown (Hempstead, Long Island), 17000 homes

1950’s suburban land value increases, white flight starts.
1959 Congress passes $650 million for slum clearance and rehab.
1975 NYC receives federal loan to avoid bankruptcy.
70-80’s height of homelessness in US
From WW2 to 1980, 75% of gov’t spending on transportation goes to building highways, 1% to public transportation.
2000 80% of population lives in urban areas.