As terrible as the Great Chicago Fire was to the city of Chicago back in 1871, the lessons learned from this disaster and the reconstruction that followed from the ashes and rubble actually helped turn Chicago into one of the great cities in the United States. This paper will examine what happened and why, what the leaders of Chicago learned from the experience, and how the will and spirit of the people of Chicago along with financial support from a sympathetic nation and beyond forever changed the city of Chicago for the better. Introducing Chicago Chicago was a thriving city in the late 1800s. In fact, it was the lumber capital of the world. (2) Buildings, streets, and sidewalks were all made of wood taking advantage of Chicago’s abundance …show more content…
There had been a terrible drought that year leaving the wood on the city’s buildings, streets and sidewalks dry and brittle. Building codes were pretty much ignored adding to the risk that these structures were not safe and sound. Chicago was a perfect spot for a major fire to break out. There are many theories on how the fire actually started. The most common theory is that a family’s cow knocked over a lighted lantern inside the barn. From there the fire grew and spread quickly, destroying many homes and commercial office buildings and even ships in the harbor. On October 10, when the fire was finally brought under control, there was an estimated 300 people dead and 100,000 people left homeless (4). Over 17,000 buildings were destroyed. (4) The estimated damage caused by the fire was in the hundreds of millions of dollars. …show more content…
“Most railroad tracks were not damaged. This allowed shipments of aid to come in from across the country and around the world.” (10) This would be a critical factor in accelerating efforts to rebuild the city. New construction of neighborhoods and businesses created thousands of jobs for unemployed workers. By October 1872, new buildings worth nearly $50 million had been erected. Between 1872 and 1879 more than ten thousand construction permits were issued. Between 1871 and 1891 amount $316,220,000 was poured into the construction of new buildings. (9) Architects began designing the world’s first skyscrapers. Construction codes and fire codes were no longer ignored. The destruction from the fire opened up a broad expanse of land to build on. “To a huge degree, the design and layout of the city of Chicago and the character of the buildings are a result of the Chicago Fire,” he says. “If the fire hadn’t happened, it would look a lot different.”(6) In less than 20 years after the fire, Chicago became a major economic and transportation hub. All of these factors attracted more and more people to the city of Chicago. Before the fire, approximately 324,000 people lived there. During the next ten years after the fire, 500,000 people lived there. By 1890, 19 years later, more than one million people lived in
There is one reason Chicago is as big as it is today and that is the fact that it is the largest rail city in the world. The railroad made Chicago what it is today, and although the canal was very important in the history of Chicago the railroads importance out weighs it by far. The canal was important because it was the vision of the first settlers of Chicago to have an all water trade route that would go through Chicago. What those first explorers saw was a way to make a canal so that they could transport goods from the St Lawrence River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico with less cost and with more efficiency. The canal was the reason Chicago was settled in the first place if not for it there might very well not be a city called Chicago. You could argue that the canal was the most important thing in Chicago's history but I think the railroads were much more important. The railroads enabled Chicago to become one of the biggest cities in the world by bringing in different business and all types of goods. Chicago is a very key location to have a railroad-shipping hub. This is because it is centrally located in the United States so goods can be shipped in almost any direction and received in a shorter amount of time. William Butler Ogden was the one who pushed for Chicago to adopt a large rail system and he should be known as the one who made this city boom. St. Louis or another centrally located city could have very well adopted the rail system and they would have reaped all the benefits.
In conclusion, on the night of September 25th, two beautiful churches burned and many other buildings were scorched by the flames. The fire brought fear to some residents who thought they would lose everything and exhaustion to the fire fighters. No deaths were reported, and only a few people were severely burned. It was a night that would not be forgotten easily by those who lived in the “Burning District.”
Dropping everything he’s doing Joe quickly runs to the fire poll and proceeds to exits the building, sirens soaring over head, and fire truck engines starting up, he rushes to slip on his gear, he feels good about himself knowing he’s a hero, he holds his helmet under his right arm, and jumps on the bright shiny red fire truck, he taps the sparkling smooth metal twice, and they pull out of the fire station, as they arrive at the house, he spots the bright red and orange fire, instantly everything slows down, and his heart speeds up, other than the thrill and overall well-being of this career. Job duties, Salaries, Requirements, Hours, and other information about this career are also something to think about.
The City of Detroit, Michigan, seems to be a city on the decline in America. Job prospects some of the lowest in the country and one of the only cities to be shrinking, rather than growing. There are a lot of problems Detroit is facing, one of them is there incidence rate for fires. Detroit is the number one city in America for house fires, not to mention their high rate of fires in the many vacant buildings throughout the city. There are many socioeconomic factors with the city that make the incident rates rise, and response less effective.
U.S. cities experienced rapid growth and change, and also faced new challenges following the end of World War II. The consolidation of ghettos in the inner city and the rise of suburbs are two of the characteristics and problems that consequently arose for U.S. cities. One of the biggest projects created as a solution was the public housing project. These public houses however, although in paper they seemed like a great idea, in practice they actually proved not be such a great project because they brought several tensions and problems to cities and neighborhoods.
The Great Chicago fire was out of control because all the errors and misunderstandings that happened. For example when William lee reached Golls drugstore to press the alarm box Bruno golls refused to hand it over with the claim he already saw a fire truck pass by, with no time to argue over the concern of his family William lee rushed back home in time to see the fire taking hold of his neighbors fence so knowing his house was about to catch fire he grabbed some valuables and food
The history of the Chicago River is an interesting part of Chicago. The Chicago River was shallow and stagnant, but it had much potential because of its location and what it provided to the city. The Chicago River altered the human population as Chicago developed into a big city. Because of the river factories and stock yards moved in and caused major problems for the city. The rise of Chicago's Stock Yards was a significant benefactor to the city's pollution problem. In the late1840s Chicago large stockyards moved into the city along the river and dumped all of the meat packing waste into the river. Because of this problems such as, sewage, factory waste, and other wastes over flowed the river, and badly polluted the river. Unfortunately the river was connected to Lake Michigan, the source of water for Chicago residents, drinking wate...
Burg, David F. Chicago’s White City of 1893. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1976.
...ite City should be put in consideration primarily. Very often people might see on the news that crime happens every day and violence and corruption are part of it. To promote a better society to future generations these serious issues should be taken into action adequately to minimize numerous deaths in the city of Chicago.
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people with diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were getting back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 had a lasting effect on the city and its people, and it proved to be one of the most catastrophic disasters in history.
The Great Chicago Fire occurred during October 8th and 9th of 1871. The weeks leading up to this disaster were spent with an extremely watchful eye on the city due to the lack of rain. So, one spark or one small fire could start an extremely large fire because of how much wood had been used to build the city. There were even warnings given in form of a building inspection department idea that would inform the city that the buildings were “shoddily constructed firetraps”, according to the Tribune at the time. However, the city did nothing about the proposed problem of a dangerous fire breakout and paid the price.
Before the fire broke out on Sunday night, October 8, 1871 there had been a large drought causing everything to be dry and extremely flammable. Many fires had been breaking out in Chicago. Records show that in 1870 the fire fighters went to nearly 600 fires. On Saturday night there had been a large fire that destroyed about four blocks and lasted for 16 hours. Another reason why everything in Chicago was so flammable was because almost the entire city was made out of wood. It was a lot worse in the middle class and poor sections of the town (19). Just about every house was made out of wood. Even buildings that claimed to be fire proof had wood roofs covered with tar. The richer part of town had stone and brick homes, but wooden interiors, wooden stables, and wooden storage buildings (Cromie, 81). Chicago was built on marshland and every time it rained the city flooded, so to help this problem the roads were made out of wood and elevated above the waterline. The day the fire started there were over 55 miles of pine-block street and 600 miles of wooden sidewalks. “Chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn,” according to Jim Murphy, author of The Great Fire (Murphy, 18).
Sandburg wrote his poem ‘Chicago’ in 1914. The city of Chicago itself was first established in 1833, meaning it was only about 70 years old. In 1971, a fire destroyed the entire Central Business District. The years following were a slow and grueling recovery, but eventually Chicago became a “Dominant Midwestern center for manufacturing, commerce, finance, higher education, religion, broadcasting, sports and jazz….” ( Source 1).
Jacobs, Jane. "12-13." The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. N. pag. Print.
the things to come and exited by the countless possibilities offered by one of the largest cities of the late 19th century – Chicago.