You might not know it by looking at the city today, but Cleveland was once a powerhouse when it came to industry and commerce. The need for commodities like steel, fuel, and clothing demanded by the Civil War led to heavy industrialization from the 1860’s through the 1930’s. This video shows the height of Cleveland’s industry in the late 30’s and early 40's. Immigrants flooded the city in search of work, fortunes were made, buildings were built, and the nation was strengthened by Cleveland’s industrial might. Companies like Standard Oil, Sherwin Williams, Republic Steel, and General Electric developed in and were shaped by the city. However, much of this progress began to unravel with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. During the wartime years, Cleveland would once again help to insure the victory of the United States (as it did during the Civil War) with supplies and innovation flowing from the city. However, Cleveland’s economic woes would only continue with the deindustrialization of the late 20th Century. By the 1980’s blue-collar work made up only about 1/3 of Cleveland’s job market. Today, little remains of that smoky time of production and expansion. Nevertheless, it was the legacy of the Civil War that shaped what would become the Cleveland, Ohio we know today.
Video From the National Archives
Various Library Stock Shots
Music: Snowfall (Intro) by Kai Engel
[Fade Added] (CC BY-NC 4.0)
freemusicarchive.org/.../Kai_....
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Sources:
case.edu/ech/articles/i/industry
13 ноя 2020
