Physical Environments

A lonely job for a child working in the coal mines.

Northern Regions North - East Coast and Great Lakes Appalachian Mountains divide the two north's.

The economy of the East Coast region centered on major international seaports.

1870 pop. Of New York, New Jersey, & Pennsylvania was  8.8 million.

1900 pop. Of New York, New Jersey, & Pennsylvania was 15.4 million.

The economy of the Great Lakes region was based on the production of steel and steel products.

1870 pop. Of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, & Wisconsin 7 million.

1904 pop. Of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, & Wisconsin 16 million.

Pittsburgh became the world's largest steel-producing city.

Cleveland became an oil refining center.

Chicago became the largest rail center in the world.

The growth of one city: Chicago's industry started as a shipping port for western grains. It became the center where many railroads met. It became the meat packing center of the nation and soon became the banking and financial center for the Great Plains and much of the west and then became the mail order center for the Midwest.

The Natural Resource Factor

Advantages for locating factories in cities rather than near natural resources and more labor. The demand for products was highest in early 1800's. Factories couldn't locate in cities because natural resources could not be transported to cities, so the factories would be built near the natural resources. Natural resources transported to the North included:

Oil from Pennsylvania

Wool from West

Cotton from South

Grains from Great Plains

Coal from Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Illinois