American Industry Tour
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The American Industry Tour showcases the industrial heritage of the Northeastern United States. As many other historical trails in North America, the tour follows migration routes from east to west, with a chronology from colonial times to the present day. Starting in Boston in the 17th and 18th centuries, we visit the 19th century factory clusters around Albany and New York City, and carry on through industrial regions of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, which had their heyday during the 20th century, ending in Chicago.
The rather small area along this trail contains much of America's industrial heritage, with a majority of the country's industry-related National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites and National Historical Parks. Many of the rest are in Minnesota.
UnderstandFrom 1776 to 1945, the United States transformed from an agrarian country of 2½ million inhabitants to the world's leading superpower, and the home of 140 million people.
Get aroundYou can't work in a steel mill and think small. Giant converters hundreds of feet high. Every night, the sky looked enormous. It was a torrent of flames – of fire. The place that Pittsburgh used to be had such scale.
GoOur chronology starts in the 17th century in Boston, Massachusetts, where some industries could be found already during the Colonial era.
Go nextIn Chicago, our chronology reaches the 1950s, as the city was at its peak. Since the 1960s, the industries of the Northeast started downsizing, due to automation and outsourcing.
See also
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "American Industry Tour" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons