The Bronx

====New York City expands====
[[File:Bronx 1900.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|[[Grand Concourse (Bronx)|Grand Concourse]] and [[161st Street (Bronx)|161st Street]] as they appeared around 1900]]
[[File:Simpson Street Station.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The [[Simpson Street (IRT White Plains Road Line)|Simpson Street]] elevated station was built in 1904 and opened on November 26, 1904. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 2004.]]

The Bronx was a mostly rural area for many generations, with small farms supplying the city markets. In the late 19th century, however, it grew into a railroad suburb. Faster transportation enabled rapid population growth in the late 19th century, involving the move from horse-drawn street cars to elevated railways and the subway system, which linked to Manhattan in 1904.<ref name="Olmsted 1989; Olmsted 1998">Olmsted (1989); Olmsted (1998)</ref>

The South Bronx was a manufacturing center for many years and was noted as a center of [[piano]] manufacturing in the early part of the 20th century. In 1919, the Bronx was the site of 63 piano factories employing more than 5,000 workers.<ref name="Piano Workers May Strike">{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/08/29/103460481.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/08/29/103460481.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |title=Piano Workers May Strike |date=August 29, 1919 |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 25, 2011}}</ref>

At the end of [[World War I]], the Bronx hosted the rather small [[Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries|1918 World's Fair]] at 177th Street and DeVoe Avenue.<ref name="ultan">[[Lloyd Ultan (historian)|Lloyd Ultan]], [http://www.bronxriver.org/?pg=content&p=abouttheriver&m1=9&m2=58 "History of the Bronx River"], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619231425/http://bronxriver.org/?pg=content&p=abouttheriver&m1=9&m2=58 |date=June 19, 2019 }} Paper presented to the [[Bronx River Alliance]], November 5, 2002 (notes taken by Maarten de Kadt, November 16, 2002), retrieved on August 29, 2008. This {{frac|2|1|2}} hour talk covers much of the early history of the Bronx as a whole, in addition to the [[Bronx River]].</ref><ref>[[Christopher Gray (architectural historian)|Gray, Christopher Gray]]. [https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/22/realestate/streetscapes-the-new-york-coliseum-from-auditorium-to-bus-garage-to.html "Streetscapes: The New York Coliseum; From Auditorium To Bus Garage to..."], ''[[The New York Times]]'', Real Estate section, March 22, 1992. Accessed January 2, 2024</ref>

The Bronx underwent rapid urban growth after World War I. Extensions of the [[New York City Subway]] contributed to the increase in population as thousands of immigrants came to the Bronx, resulting in a major boom in residential construction.<ref>Tarver, Denton. [https://cooperatornews.com/article/the-new-bronx "The New Bronx A Quick History of the Iconic Borough"], ''Cooperator News'', April 2007. Accessed January 2, 2024. "The urbanization of the Bronx truly began with the entrance of the subway into the area in 1904. As the rapid transit came in spurts: 1905, 1910, 1918, and 1920, the subway and elevated train access to Manhattan caused the population of the Bronx to surge, as these rail lines built their tracks into the still-green fields and meadows."</ref> Among these groups, many [[Irish Americans]], [[Italian Americans]], and especially [[Jewish Americans]] settled here. In addition, [[French American|French]], [[German Americans|German]], [[Polish American|Polish]], and other immigrants moved into the borough. As evidence of the change in population, by 1937, 592,185 Jews lived in the Bronx (43.9% of the borough's population),<ref>''[[The World Almanac and Book of Facts]], 1943'', page 494, citing the [[American Jewish Committee]] and the Jewish Statistical Bureau of the [[Synagogue Council of America]]</ref> while only 54,000 Jews lived in the borough in 2011. Many [[synagogue]]s still stand in the Bronx, but most have been converted to other uses.<ref name="Remembrance">Seymour J. Perlin, [http://www.bronxsynagogues.org/ic/bronxsyn/survey.html "Remembrance of Synagogues Past: The Lost Civilization of the Jewish South Bronx"] (retrieved on August 10, 2008), citing population estimates in "The Jewish Community Study of New York: 2002", UJA [United Jewish Appeal] Federation of New York,
June 2004, and his own survey of synagogue sites.</ref>