New York in the 1900s

Work

Needles and long hours

A large share of industrial work visible from lower Manhattan belongs to clothing: more than 450 Manhattan textile factories⁶ employ about 40,000 garment workers⁶. In the shirtwaist trade, weeks of 65 to 75 hours⁸ are reported.

Who lived here

An immigrant metropolis

New York is already enormous, with 3,437,202 people in 1900¹. At Ellis Island, the decade peaks in 1907 when more than one million people pass through⁴ the immigration station.

Home & table

Tenement reform world

Housing is a political and bodily question: laws require fire escapes and a window for every room³ facing light and air. The census counts 249,991 dwelling places² for more than three million city residents.

Money

Pay by skill and place

In the shirtwaist shops, learners often earn $3 or $4 a day⁸, while semi-skilled operators may make $7 to $12⁸. The difference marks gender, training, bargaining power, and the subcontracting system.

Law & power

A new municipal machine

The city has recently become five boroughs under one municipal government⁵. By 1901 its charter gives formal power to a mayor, borough presidents, a comptroller, a City Council president, and a Board of Estimate⁷.

In the air

Labor, suffrage, reform

The great public argument of 1909 is work itself: the Uprising of the 20,000⁸ brings young immigrant women into the street. Shirtwaist workers are also linked to Yiddish-speaking Jewish and Italian immigrant communities⁸ and to women’s suffrage agitation.

What people feared

Fire, illness, overcrowding

Tenement law speaks to everyday danger through fire escapes, air, and windows³. Ellis Island records show another fear: from July 1905 to June 1906, 1,990 immigrants were admitted to New York City hospitals⁴.

Roads & news

Subway and spectacle

News arrives through newspapers, crowds, and public ceremony: the subway opens from City Hall⁹ in 1904. The city also invents a new annual spectacle when the illuminated Times Square ball⁵ first drops for 1908.

Year by year

1. 1898Greater New York came into being when Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were consolidated under one city government. here⁵
2. 1900The census counted New York City at 3,437,202 people, making it the largest city in the United States. here¹
3. 1901The New Law tenement era began as housing reformers pressed the state to regulate light, air, sanitation, and fire safety. here³
4. 1904The first subway opened from City Hall, changing how ordinary New Yorkers could cross Manhattan. here⁹
5. 1906The San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed much of that city and would have filled New York newspapers with disaster reports. the country
6. 1907Ellis Island processed more than one million immigrants in its busiest year. nearby⁴
7. 1908The first Times Square ball drop marked the arrival of the new year. here⁵
8. 1909The Uprising of the 20,000 made young immigrant women garment workers a central force in the city’s labor politics. here⁸

What the sources say

• New York City had 3,437,202 people in the 1900 census, including 1,850,093 in Manhattan and 1,166,582 in Brooklyn. from the sources¹
• The city had been consolidated on January 1, 1898, uniting Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island under one municipal government. from the sources⁵
• The 1879 Tenement Act required fire escapes and a window for every room facing fresh air and light, and the 1901 “New Law” was still part of the decade’s housing reform argument. from the sources³
• The 1900 census counted 249,991 dwelling places in New York City for its 3,437,202 inhabitants. from the sources²
• Ellis Island reached its peak in 1907, when more than one million people passed through the immigration station and 11,747 arrived on April 17 alone. from the sources⁴
• The subway opening ceremonies of October 27, 1904, began at City Hall, with Mayor George B. McClellan taking the controls of the first ceremonial train. from the sources⁹
• When the first subway opened on October 27, 1904, it ran from City Hall to 145th Street and Lenox Avenue. from the sources⁹
• At the turn of the century, Manhattan alone had more than 450 textile factories employing about 40,000 garment workers, many of them immigrants. from the sources⁶
• New York’s shirtwaist industry in the first decade was divided among about 600 shops and factories, employing 30,000 workers and producing about $50 million in goods annually. from the sources⁸
• The New Year’s celebration moved to Times Square in 1904, and the first illuminated ball descended there at midnight on December 31, 1907. from the sources⁵
• The shirtwaist strike that began in November 1909 became known as the Uprising of the 20,000 and was largely a strike of young immigrant women. from the sources⁸
• Garment workers’ normal weeks could be 65 hours and, in season, as much as 75 hours. from the sources⁸
• In the shirtwaist trade, “learners” often earned only $3 or $4 a day, while semi-skilled operators typically made $7 to $12. from the sources⁸
• The shirtwaist workforce was dominated by immigrants, with Yiddish-speaking Jews about half of the total and Italians about one-third. from the sources⁸
• The garment workforce described for the shirtwaist trade was about 70 percent female, and about half of the workers were under 20 years old. from the sources⁸
• By 1901 the city charter included a mayor, borough presidents, a comptroller, a City Council president, and a Board of Estimate. from the sources⁷
• The subway contract was awarded on December 18, 1897, and work began on March 24, 1900. from the sources⁹
• The city’s first subway was built with public authority but operated day to day by the private Interborough Rapid Transit Company. from the sources⁹
• Between July 1905 and June 1906, 563 people were ill at Ellis Island and 1,990 immigrants were admitted from there to New York City hospitals. from the sources⁴
• No single online source opened here gives a street-by-street description of ordinary houses at the City Hall coordinates in the 1900s. not known

Sources

1. Total Population: New York City & Boroughs, 1900 to 2010. New York City Department of City Planning
2. Twelfth Census of the United States: Statistics of Population. U.S. Census Bureau, 1900
3. NYC Timeline: Tenement House Act. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission Archaeological Repository
4. Ellis Island (U.S. Immigration Station), HABS No. NY-6086. Historic American Buildings Survey / Library of Congress
5. New York City and the New Year. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023
6. What is a Shirtwaist?. PBS American Experience
7. A History of Land Use and the NYC Charter. New York City Charter Revision Commission, 2025
8. New York shirtwaist strike of 1909. Wikipedia
9. New York City's Independent Subway System Opened. Library of Congress

New York in other decades

Nearby, about the same time