USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Chicago’s geographic location along a continental divide between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River drainage systems has long made the area a transportation nexus. Transportation improvements which far exceeded the needs of metropolitan residents have fostered great mobility and physical expansion.

Detailed explanation-2: -By the beginning of the 20th century, no fewer than 30 interstate routes fanned out from the city, and the resulting ease in reaching both raw materials and markets contributed to the city’s rapid commercial and industrial development.

Detailed explanation-3: -Railroads gave it ready access to almost every industrial raw material, and the range of products shipped included heavy machine tools, printing, foodstuffs, and chemicals. The manufacture of electrical and communications goods made Chicago the Silicon Valley of its day.

Detailed explanation-4: -By the 1920s, electrical machinery, iron and steel products, machine tools, and fabricated metals from Chicago were being sold not merely throughout the United States, but all over the world. Chicago’s formidable industrial prowess provides a ready explanation of the city’s economic dynamism between the 1850s and 1930.