new york washington chicago philadelphia pittsburgh american cities big cities bigger biggest all have one important thing in every one the first settlements were founded as a transfer point where there was a change from one form of transferred to another for from the beginning to lose were needed as well as medicine clothing weapons g they could get from europe only by trade and trade as always was dependent on transportation by land and by water so towns stranded around busy harbors and ling goods and passengers first on the east coast then on the gulf much later on the west coast other cities likewise began as rivers or link transfer boys on the great inland waterway cities have grown where there was water to turn the wheels a factory near mineral resources cities grew midway between sources of raw materials used in the manufacture of a finished product such a steel others grew near inland transfer point where products of the surrounding rural region were brought to the story or shipped to larger markets certain cities situated in mild even climates have grown as centers for relaxation and convalescen from the start certainly young towns expanded faster than the rest as commerce grew and transfer points industry business and communication tended to centralise in those cities proximity of raw materials and labor naturally stimulated further gro the greatest expansion followed the civil war industrial centers grew by leaps and bounds as factories doubled and tripled after eight hundred ninety waves of immigrants many bringing urban skilled swell the size of our city again new types of farm machinery cut down the number of people needed on farms young people headed for the cities to live and work and with the passing decade those cities grew fastest that were situated as transfer points handling goods and services of the nation's most productive areas and the gridiron pattern a popular nineteenth century city plan but due to the incredibly rapid expansion most cities outdistance their planners when there were any and grew into a maze of complexity and confusion this is the profile of the city any city to the left is the center of business next is all of warehouses terminals and old homes moderately priced apartments occupied the third  the first zone has single family homes when a metropolitan area grows the zones expand to take in more area politically metropolitan areas often straddle state and county boundaries included in these areas are many small local political units cities villages townships there's overlapping duplications and conflict in government functions of these various units as regards highways schools water supply and taxes a city has problems increase with its size because of this lack of discipline planning many of our large cities have paid a terrible price high land values in crowded buildings crowded street traffic jams and costly delays in distributing good the general decline in warm neighborly relationships far too little chance for fresh air and sunlight a higher cost per person for essential services it is even become difficult for the average citizen to actively take part in his local government but we've come a long way to an exciting era reasons which determined the original location of the city's one so significant no longer applies today factories can be built almost anywhere since power can be made available anywhere instantaneous communication makes it possible for parts of the single company to be hundreds of miles apart many plants once dependent on railroad and water transport are today free to build elsewhere sound business is taking advantage of an increasingly mobey labor force i'm moving to the low rent outskirts and so are families which can afford houses in the country the trend is away from the congested center a difficult perplexing job bases today's city planners we must work within the limits of a basically rigid structure  sections of buildings must be blasted to make way for new avenues and followed by new school new playground low cost housing developments more efficient a variety of employment of today facilities and a city with its large interested audiences encourages a rich cultural life come to galleries lectures if we plan well urban americans will someday enjoy more of the advantages of a large city without many of the penalties they now are forced to pay