Caggia 16.1

In 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan, opened after 14 years of construction.
E. F. Farrington, a mechanic who worked on the bridge described the working conditions inside the caisson as having an "unreal, weird appearance" with "confused sensation in the head".
By 1890, 58 American cities had populations of 50,000 or more, up from only 25 in 1870.
By the turn of the 20th century, 4 out of 10 Americans lived in cities due to increasing industrial jobs.
Technological advances addressed the needs for communication, transportation, and space in response to urban changes.

The invention of elevators and the development of internal steel skeletons enabled the design of taller buildings.
Louis Sullivan designed the ten-story Wainwright Building in St. Louis (1890-1891), calling skyscrapers "proud and soaring thing[s]".
Frank Lloyd Wright, who studied under Sullivan, called the skyscraper “a new thing under the sun”.
Daniel Burnham designed the 285-foot Flatiron Building in New York City in 1902.

Before the Civil War, horses drew streetcars over iron rails.
In the 1870s and 1880s, underground moving cables powered streetcar lines.
In 1888, Richmond, Virginia, became the first American city to electrify its urban transit.
Electric streetcars (trolley cars) ran from outlying neighborhoods to downtown areas.
New railroad lines also fed the growth of suburbs, allowing residents to commute to downtown jobs.
New York’s northern suburbs supplied 100,000 commuters daily to the central business district.
Some cities built elevated or “el” trains, while others, like New York, built subways.
These transit systems enabled cities to annex suburban developments.

Steel-cable suspension bridges, like the Brooklyn Bridge, brought city sections closer.
John Augustus Roebling included an elevated promenade in his design for the Brooklyn Bridge.
The science of urban planning emerged to restore serenity to the environment by designing recreational areas.
Frederick Law Olmsted spearheaded the movement for planned urban parks.
In 1857, Olmsted and Calvert Vaux designed “Greensward,” which became Central Park in New York City, featuring boating, tennis facilities, a zoo, and bicycle paths.
Olmsted aimed for the park’s beauty to soothe city inhabitants and provide a “natural” setting.
Olmsted planned landscaping for Washington, D.C., and St. Louis in the 1870s.
He also drew initial designs for Boston’s “Emerald Necklace” parks system.
Boston’s Back Bay area, originally a 450-acre swamp, was drained and developed with elegant streets and cultural attractions.

Chicago's rapid growth from 30,000 people in 1850 to 300,000 in 1870 led to unregulated expansion.
Daniel Burnham oversaw the transformation of a swampy area near Lake Michigan into a White City for Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
The exposition featured majestic exhibition halls, statues, the first Ferris wheel, and a lagoon, attracting over 21 million visitors.
Burnham created an overall plan for Chicago, featuring parks along Lake Michigan.
Chicago’s lakefront has curving banks of grass and sandy beaches instead of piers and warehouses.
Burnham designed the “White City” to host the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
His greatest legacy to Chicago may have been his idea for a lakefront park system, complete with beaches, playing fields, and playgrounds.
Urban planners provided for local parks—such as Lincoln Park in Chicago—so that “the sweet breath of plant life” would be available to everyone.
Burnham saw the advantage of harbors for recreation and commercial purposes but advocated moving the harbors away from the central business districts to free space for public use.
Burnham redesigned the street pattern to create a group of long streets that would converge on a grand plaza, a practice reflected in other American cities.
The convergence of major thoroughfares at a city’s center helped create a unified city from a host of neighborhoods.

By 1890, the literacy rate in the United States had risen to nearly 90 percent.
Publishers produced increasing numbers of books, magazines, and newspapers.
American mills began mass-producing cheap paper from wood pulp.
The electrically powered web-perfecting press printed on both sides of a continuous paper roll.
Faster production and lower costs made newspapers and magazines more affordable; newspapers cost a penny a copy.

Orville and Wilbur Wright, bicycle manufacturers from Dayton, Ohio, experimented with engines for “heavier-than-air” craft.
They built a glider, commissioned a four-cylinder internal combustion engine, and designed a biplane with a 40’4” wingspan.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, they made their first successful flight, covering 120 feet in 12 seconds.

In 1892, Orville and Wilbur Wright opened a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio.
They used the profits to fund experiments in aeronautics.
On December 17, Orville Wright made the first successful flight of a powered aircraft in history.
By 1918, the Postal Service began airmail service.
In 1920, the government established the first transcontinental airmail service.
Early airplane engines:
- 1880s: Otto engine - $440 lbs$ ( $200 kg$ ) per horsepower
- 1903: Wright engine - $13 lbs$ ( $6 kg$ ) per horsepower
- 1910: Gnome engine - $3.3 lbs$ ( $1.5 kg$ ) per horsepower
- 1918: V-12 Liberty engine - $2 lbs$ ( $1 kg$ ) per horsepower
- 1944: Wright Cyclone engine - $1.1 lbs$ ( $0.5 kg$ ) per horsepower
The Wright airplane was powered by a 4-cylinder 12-horse-power piston engine, designed and constructed by Charles Taylor.

Before the 1880s, photography was a professional activity due to the time and equipment required.
New techniques eliminated the need for immediate development.
George Eastman developed flexible film coated with gelatin emulsions.
In 1888, Eastman introduced the Kodak camera for $25, including a 100-picture roll of film.
After taking pictures, customers sent the camera to Eastman’s factory for development and reloading for $10.
The Kodak camera led to millions of amateur photographers and helped create photojournalism.
An amateur photographer captured the Wright brothers’ first successful flight on film.

The British city planner Ebenezer Howard wrote of a planned residential community called a garden city.
Howard wanted to combine the benefits of urban life with easy access to nature.
His city plan was based on concentric circles—with a town at the center and a wide circle of rural land on the perimeter.
The town center included a garden, concert hall, museum, theater, library, and hospital.
The circle around the town center included a park, a shopping center, a conservatory, a residential area, and industry.
Six wide avenues radiated out from the town center.
In 1903, Letchworth, England served as the model for Howard’s garden city.