1. Growth of the Northeast

2. Transportation Helped
Cities Grow
 People had two choices for travel: roads or
waterways.
 Roads not paved, traveling was slow.
 Traveling by boat was faster.
 Harbors on the coast in the northeast.
 Navigable rivers flowed across the region.
 Problem: they weren’t connected because the
Appalachian Mountains separated waterways in the
east from those in the west.

3. Transportation Helped
Cities Grow
 Solution: Linking waterways
 The Erie Canal was conceived by state leaders
in New York. It would connect the Great Lakes
to the Atlantic Ocean by linking Lake Erie to the
canal and the canal to the Hudson and N.Y.C.
on the coast.
 Solution: Build better roads and miles of
railroads.
 By the early 1900’s better roads and railroads
connected much of the Northeast.

4. The Erie Canal

5. The Industrial Revolution
Helped Cities Grow
 Meanwhile: As transportation improved so did
industry.
 Machines powered by hand were replaced by
machines, which made more products, faster.
 First, these factories were powered by moving water.
Textile mills opened along rivers.
 Later, steam engines were used to power machines in
factories and to power boats and trains.
 Thomas Edison opened first electric ‘power plant’
which, in time, provided electricity across the U.S.A.

6. Immigration Helped Cities
Grow
 Immigrants begin to come to northeast for
many reasons.
 For them, America was the land of opportunity.
 There first stop was Ellis Isand, our country’s
largest immigration center.
 Although many moved to different parts of the
country, millions stayed in the northeast to
work in factories, which resulted in urban
growth.

7. Cities Grow and Connect
 Improved transportation, growing
industries, and immigration helped cities
grow.
 Big cities such as NYC, Boston, and
Philadelphia grew and so did suburbs,
creating metropolitan areas.
 In time, these areas began to grow closer
together to form a megalopolis.

8. Traveling Between Cities
Today
 How is travel easier today than it was back
in the 1800’s; what new ways do we have?
 Highways
 Airlines
 Passenger Trains

9. Growth of the Northeast
 Transportation and power helped cities in
the northeast grow.
 The Industrial Revolution helped the
northeast grow.
 Immigrants also contributed to urban
growth.