History of New York - 1900 Through The Great Depression

1900 Through The Great Depression

By 1900, New York was the richest and most populous state. Two years prior, the five boroughs of New York City became one city. Within decades, the city's emblem had become the skyscraper: the Woolworth Building was the tallest building in the world from 1913, surpassed by 40 Wall Street in April 1930, the Chrysler Building in 1930, the Empire State Building in 1931, and the World Trade Center in 1972 before losing the title in 1974.

In the early 20th century, governor Theodore Roosevelt and fellow Republicans invented Progressivism, later known as "the New York Idea". "Its main concerns included the righting of social ills, conservation, the discarding of ineffective and corrupt urban government, and control of trusts and other industrial combinations." Democrats continued the ideology. However, they were "more concerned about factory labor and urban problems and had closer ties to immigrants and organized labor." Democrats' efforts in Progressivism impacted the national party: "The Democratic Party developed a new image—at once urban and reform minded, pro-immigrant and welcoming to African Americans—that increasingly defined the northern Democratic Party."

Following a sharp but short-lived Depression at the beginning of the decade, New York enjoyed a booming economy during the Roaring Twenties. New York suffered during the Great Depression, which began with the Wall Street crash on Black Tuesday in 1929. The Securities and Exchange Commission opened in 1934 to regulate the stock market. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected governor in 1928, and the state faced upwards of 25% unemployment. His Temporary Emergency Relief Agency, established in 1931, was the first work relief program in the nation and influenced the national Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Roosevelt was elected President in 1932 in part because of his promises to extend New York–style relief programs across the country via his New Deal. In 1932, Lake Placid was host to the III Olympic Winter Games.