Construction Materials Used in NYC in the 1900s

Brick

• Brick was one of the most common construction materials used in Manhattan in the 1900s. This material had been used for centuries beforehand but came in especially handy in a rapidly growing city where buildings needed to be erected quickly. According to history website Historic Brighton (historicbrighton.com), brick was a preferred material in New York City over wood, since wood could catch fire easily and level hundreds of buildings. By 1900, Historic Brighton states, developers were using about 1 million bricks per year to further erect Manhattan.

Asbestos

• Asbestos, which is an organic mineral that is also highly fire resistant, was so widely used in the construction of New York City in the 1900s that the city came to be known as "the birthplace of the American asbestos industry," according to cancer website Asbestos.com. Asbestos was used in constructing shipyards, skyscrapers, normal office buildings and manufacturing plants. It was later discovered that exposure to asbestos could lead to various forms of respiratory illness and cancer. In the 1970s, asbestos was outlawed as a construction material, but older buildings still contain the substance.

Concrete

• According to the New York Construction Materials Association, concrete is a "naturally green" building material that was commonly used in the 1900s to build sidewalks, buildings, roadways, freeways, homes and parks. Some of the most popular buildings in Manhattan are built out of concrete, such as the Guggenheim Museum, which was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright out of reinforced concrete.

Steel

• British-born Sir Henry Bessemer invented steel in 1855 using his "Bessemer Furnace," which blasted refined molten iron with air and turned it into steel. In the 1900s, massive quantities of steel were being produced for developers in New York City. Famous Manhattan buildings that contain steel in either their exterior or interior frames include the Chrysler building, Hearst Tower, the Flatiron building and the Empire State building.