page_title: History of New York City (1898–1945)
section_title: Progressive Era: 1890s–1920s
hierarchical_section_title: History of New York City (1898–1945) / Progressive Era: 1890s–1920s
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Woolworth Building and surrounding buildings, New York City. Mullet's City Hall Post Office and Courthouse (New York City) in middleground left.
context_page_description: During the years of 1898–1945, New York City consolidated. New York City became the capital of national communications, trade, and finance, and of popular culture and high culture. More than one-fourth of the 300 largest corporations in 1920 were headquartered there.
  The era began with the formation of the consolidated city of the five boroughs in 1898, with a total population of 3.4 million. New transportation links, especially the New York City Subway, opened in 1904, bound together the new metropolis. Increased immigration of unskilled Catholic and Jewish workers from Southern and Eastern Europe expanded the labor force until the World War ended immigration in 1914. Labor shortages during the war attracted African Americans from the Southeast, who headed north as part of the Great Migration. They sponsored the Harlem Renaissance of literature and culture celebrating the black experience.
  The Roaring Twenties were years of glamour and wealth, highlighted by a construction boom, with skyscrapers built higher and higher in the famous skyline. New York's financial sector came to dominate the national and the world economies.
context_section_description: The modern five boroughs, comprising the city of New York, were united in 1898. That year, the cities of New York—which then consisted of present-day Manhattan and the Bronx—and Brooklyn were both consolidated with the largely rural areas of Queens and Staten Island. The total population was 3.4 million in 1900, leaping to 5.6 million in 1920 and leveling off at 7.9 million in 1950. The population was highly diverse in terms of ethnicity, race, religion and class. The city went through an enormous growth in population, industry, and wealth. The major achievements included the building of the subway system by private enterprise. The city funded major new bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens, which facilitated commuting and the rise of an industrial base in those boroughs. The city also expanded its port facilities, improved its traffic system, built hundreds of new elementary and high schools, and engaged in large-scale public health programs.
caption: The Woolworth Building, built in 1913
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2864", "Image ImageLength": "3658", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2018:04:23 00:30:02", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "382", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8500", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2864", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3658"}