Without technology like computers and internet, remote work was not a possibility 100 years ago.
In the 1920s, workers from major American cities commissioned via buses, metros, ferries, trams and cars.
Going to work has radically changed in cities like Los Angeles, which in the 1920s housed the largest electrical interurban cart system in the world. Today, the trams have been replaced by highways obstructed by private vehicles.
New York, however, still uses the same metro system built over 120 years ago.
Travel continued to evolve from the COVVI-19 pandemic. While some companies demand that employees return to the office after years of home work, an analysis in 2024 of Stanford, WFH Research, and Gusto have found that the workers are now living almost three times further from their offices than before the pandemic due to the rise in remote work.
This is what movements in three major American cities looked like 100 years ago.
A century ago, the streets of New York were full of buses, cars and pedestrians walking at work.
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In 1900, New York population reached 3.5 million people, a large number of immigrants arrived in the United States, TR News magazine reported. Many newly arrived residents lived in districts of the remote housing of factories or misery workshops where they worked.
The metro was a popular way to go to work in New York.
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While the railway railroad from New York began to operate in 1868, the metro system was built between 1900 and 1936, with the first opening of a clandestine railway in 1904.
The underground trains helped relieve congestion over the ground and extend the distance from which people could go to work.
The metro cost five hundred per journey – below the price of today $ 2.90.
In the 1920s, parts of the metro system were still under construction.
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Some metro tunnels have been built using a method called “cut and coverage” in which workers cut trenches in the street and built temporary wooden structures on the hole to allow the continuous flow of traffic, according to the New York Transit Museum. The construction of deeper tunnels required the use of dynamite.
The New York Municipal Ferry system has also served the five districts and New Jersey.
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Ferry routes have become obsolete as more bridges have been built, allowing cars to cross the New York navigable tracks. On the dozen ferry roads that operated in the 1920s, the Ferry of Staten Island remains the only free ferry service provided by the City, according to the New York files and information services department.
In the 1920s, the raised railroad of Chicago, known as “L”, had recently been built.
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Chicago’s first raised railway opened in 1892, and the Union Elevated Railroad connecting the four lines was completed in 1897, according to the Chicago encyclopedia.
The city’s first metro only opened in 1943.
Even with the commuters who mounted the “L” trains, the Chicago loop was also crowded with bus and cars.
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The population of Chicago was around 2.7 million in 1920, according to data from the American census.
Crows gathered at bus stops to wait for their rides.
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In the 1920s, women often wore valve dresses and bell hats, while men wore costumes and fedoras.
Before most Los Angeles residents drive everywhere, electric street cars were a popular public transport mode.
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Operated by the Pacific Electric Railway, the red trams provided an interurban service in the Grand Los Angeles region, leading to the development of suburbs in the counties of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside nearby.
In the 1920s, Los Angeles had the largest electrical interurban trolley system in the world.
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During its use of 3.1 million passengers in 1924, the Pacific Electric Railway operated 2,100 trains per day on 1,100 lane miles in the Grand Los Angeles region, Pasadena Weekly reported, citing data from the Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California.
The trams were finally replaced by buses.
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The Pacific Electric Railway tram service completely stopped in 1961.