Gilded Age
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Transcript of Gilded Age
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