America's Industrial Revolution was
on the march during the 1890s. The many technological advances that came
together at the turn of the century made manufacturing more and more
mechanized. Manufacturing companies, in the midst of this rapid expansion, needed
to hire workers to run the machines.
Industry's demand for work - and the
higher pay that this work entailed - brought farmers from the country and
immigrants from overseas to the urban centers of New York City, Chicago,
Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Minneapolis - and even as far west as Denver,
Colorado and Portland, Oregon. Although the history books tend to focus on the
larger industrial centers of the United States, it is important to
note that many mid-size cities experienced significant growth. Some of these communities
were located in Upstate New York, not far from where GlobalSpec (the company
that powers CR4) is now based.
The Cities of the Erie Canal
Upstate New
York, specifically the cities along the old Erie
Canal, underwent dramatic industrial development during the 1890s.
Most of these mid-sized cities were representative of what was happening in and
around the larger cities of Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
As the eastern terminus of the Erie
Canal, Albany, New York had the good fortune of being a
transfer point for goods coming from the East. Albany
also sent goods south along the Hudson River to the great economic juggernaut
of the time, New York City, and also to points
east - to Boston and other industrial centers in
New England.
Troy,
New York is still known as the Collar City
for its past production of detachable shirt collars, the style at the time. Nearby
Cohoes, New York
was known as the Spindle
City for its textile
manufacturing. Other growing industrial centers along the Erie Canal included Johnstown and Gloversville.
Both were known as the "Glove Cities" for their many glove factories and the tanneries
that supported them. Amsterdam, New York was known as the Carpet City.
The diverse industries that grew in
small towns along the Erie Canal drew in a
large number of people. As housing for these new arrivals was built farther
away from the factories, civic leaders and captains of industries worried about
transportation. Soon, however, they
embraced the promise of the inexpensive electric railcar system that Frank J. Sprague
had developed. One streetcar city that saw an incredible amount of expansion was
nearby Schenectady, New York.
Editor's Note: Part 9 of this multi-part series will run in two weeks.
Previous Blog Entries in This Series
The American Streetcar (Part 1)
From Stagecoach to Streetcar (Part 2)
From Horse-Drawn Streetcars to Cable Cars (Part 3)
The Birth of the Electric Streetcar (Part 4)
Electric Streetcars and Trolley Technology (Part 5)
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