Text 2. Growth of Cities (Principle of City Location)

Cities, that is, large and dense population settlements, tend to be located at breaks of transportation lines¹. The crowding of urban developments is undoubtedly due to the need for unloading facilities² for ocean-going freighters. In addition to docks and piers, and to ware-houses for temporary storage, there must be facilities for inland transportation³. Thus, cities are located where the inland waterways connect with the open sea, or where highways and, later, railroad lines terminate the edge of the continent, providing coast-to-coast distribution⁴ all incoming goods.

It takes both personnel and equipment to transfer goods⁵ from one means of transport to another. There are opportunities for work as well as commercial gain where the boats come in. Harbour facilities must be provided, and the final distribution of incoming goods must be decided upon. Manpower is needed for the operation of physical as well as commercial processes in demand at such locations. Thus a sufficient population is attracted and retained to provide for the first foundation and further growth of an urban settlement.

The seacoast shipping centers furnish only the most obvious example of a principle of city location that has much wider application. There are urban settlements at river crossings which in earlier days necessitated reloading activities⁶. There are urban settlements along the inland waterways where goods were transferred from barges to wagon trains, railroads, or trucks. There are urban settlements at the edges of mountain ranges⁷ that formerly made necessary the shifting from one means of transportation to another.

Wherever railroad construction came temporarily to an end, urban settlements developed to accommodate the transfer of goods from freight train to some other means. Today, the break of transportation which caused original city location has many instances been replaced by further extensions of the rail system⁸. Railroad construction was continued with devastating effect upon inland trading centers. Bridges were thrown over rivers to eliminate the need for reloading to and from ferries⁹. In this process, many urban communities came to outlive their usefulness¹⁰. The location of new communities and their development changed continuously with the improvement of our means of transportation.

In addition to the reason for city location, there are many other reasons for city growth. The functions of the city as a trading center are emphasized by the theory that points exclusively to location at breaks of transportation lines.

In the early Middle Age, city location was determined primarily by the needs of defense. We find remnants of these ancient cities on almost inaccessible hillsides, on the estuaries of rivers, or perched on peninsulas. With the development of trade and commerce, many of these cities lost importance, ceased to grow, and drifted into stagnation¹¹. Nor is urban growth entirely explainable anymore by location to transportation facilities. Most modern cities have developed from centers of commerce and trade to centers of industry. Under the circumstances, new economic considerations have to be added to the explanation of urban growth and development.

Modern industry needs bulky raw materials. The distance there raw materials have to travel from their place of origin (for example, from the mines) to the place of industrial transformation enters heavily into industrial cost calculations¹². Quite often several raw materials are required in the process of production.

Location of industry and location of urban settlements are attracted to the place where raw materials are extracted. On top of the mines, obviously, the cost of cross-country transportation is reduced to nothing¹³.

Coal proves to be more effective in¹⁴ attracting the steel industry than iron. More coal than in iron ore – in weight and bulk – is used and lost in the production of any given amount of steel. For this reason, the steel industries of Western Europe are located in the Ruhr valley where coal is found, rather than in France where the iron ore is mined.

The relationships of industrial and urban location to coal and iron ore is, of course, only a striking example of a more general principle. Location is determined by the attempt to reduce the total cost for transportation to the lowest possible level. The pottery industry moves to deposits of suitable clay; oil refineries hover over the most productive wells; and paper mills cluster around our resources of timber. Urban settlements provide the necessary manpower for industrial and commercial activities in such locations.