Themes in American History

The similarity that New York and St. Louis had is that they were both cities that were fast growing. Both cities had merchants that sought to obtain as much business as they can and they both benefited with the ports that they had around them. New York was one of the biggest port city during the 1840s and 1850s and St. Louis was benefited with the great midwestern water network. However, this benefit that St. Louis had soon with the civil war and the building of the railroad, this city soon failed. This is the difference, as for New York the civil war did not harm them as much as it did for St. Louis. While the civil war was occurring the lower Mississippi river was closed to commercial traffic by the Union army and caused for a downfall in St. Louis business. All of the business that St. Louis conducted was shifted to Chicago. As for New York, they did go through economic problems during the civil war, but their business did not shift to another city and they did not go to a downfall to completely paralyze New York.

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