New York in the 1900s

New York was very different a hundred years ago. Let’s go back to the 1900s. New York was always a very big city. Back then, there were three million people living in New York and today nearly eight million people. It is a very crowded city. In New York, there are many tall buildings today but in 1900 there weren’t many big buildings. There was the Statue of Liberty and today you can also see the statue in New York.

Some big houses had electric lights and most of them had candles. Some wealthy people had telephones but there weren’t any computers or the Internet. People couldn’t send any e-mails. Instead, they wrote letters.

There were lots of theatres in New York but there weren’t any cinemas. People didn’t have TVs, but they had books.

Lots of people had horses and carriages and few people had cars. There were taxis in New York in 1900, and buses and even underground trains. There weren’t any planes and there wasn’t an airport. There were big boats that came to New York from Europe.

Today New York has the largest population compared to any state in the USA. It is also an important finance and economy centre.