470 C
HAPTER 15
Vocabulary
chlorination: a
method of
purifying water by
mixing it with the
chemical chlorine
Urban Problems
As the urban population skyrocketed, city governments faced the problems of
how to provide residents with needed services and safe living conditions.
HOUSING
When the industrial age began, working-class families in cities had
two housing options. They could either buy a house on the outskirts of town,
where they would face transportation problems, or rent cramped rooms in a
boardinghouse in the central city. As the urban population increased, however,
new types of housing were designed. For example, row houses—single-family
dwellings that shared side walls with other similar houses—packed many single-
family residences onto a single block.
After working-class families left the central city, immigrants often took over
their old housing, sometimes with two or three families occupying a one-family
residence. As Jacob Riis pointed out, these multifamily urban dwellings, called
tenements, were overcrowded and unsanitary.
In 1879, to improve such slum conditions, New York City passed a law that set
minimum standards for plumbing and ventilation in apartments. Landlords began
building tenements with air shafts that provided an outside window for each
room. Since garbage was picked up infrequently, people sometimes dumped it into
the air shafts, where it attracted vermin. To keep out the stench, residents nailed
windows shut. Though established with good intent, these new tenements soon
became even worse places to live than the converted single-family residences.
TRANSPORTATION
Innovations in mass transit, transportation systems
designed to move large numbers of people along fixed routes, enabled workers to
go to and from jobs more easily. Street cars were introduced in San Francisco in
1873 and electric subways in Boston in 1897. By the early 20th century, mass-
transit networks in many urban areas linked city neighborhoods to one another
and to outlying communities. Cities struggled to repair old transit systems and to
build new ones to meet the demand of expanding populations.
WATER
Cities also faced the problem of supplying safe drinking water. As the
urban population grew in the 1840s and 1850s, cities such as New York and
Cleveland built public waterworks to handle the increasing demand. As late as the
1860s, however, the residents of many cities had grossly inadequate piped water—
or none at all. Even in large cities like New York, homes seldom had indoor
plumbing, and residents had to collect water in pails from faucets on the street
and heat it for bathing. The necessity of
improving water quality to control dis-
eases such as cholera and typhoid fever
was obvious. To make city water safer, fil-
tration was introduced in the 1870s and
chlorination in 1908. However, in the early
20th century, many city dwellers still had
no access to safe water.
SANITATION
As the cities grew, so did the
challenge of keeping them clean. Horse
manure piled up on the streets, sewage
flowed through open gutters, and factories
spewed foul smoke into the air. Without
dependable trash collection, people
dumped their garbage on the streets.
Although private contractors called scav-
engers were hired to sweep the streets, col-
lect garbage, and clean outhouses, they
▼
Sanitation
problems in big
cities were
overwhelming. It
was not unusual
to see a dead
horse in the
street.
B. Answer
Transportation
difficulties,
overcrowding,
and unsanitary
conditions.
B
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
B
Identifying
Problems
What housing
problems did
urban working-
class families
face?
