Urban Infrastructure Politics and Metropolitan Growth

Abstract

In 1874, the towns of Kingsbridge, Morrisania, and West Farms were all annexed to New York City. A fourth town, Yonkers, was also considered for annexation but was insteadincorporatedas a city in 1872 andremainedindependent of its expanding neighbor to the south. The argument made here is that infrastructurural development reinforcedYonkers’s autonomy andthus limitedthe geographic expansion of New York City. Kingsbridge, Morrisania, and West Farms were relatively undevelopedby 1874, andannexation was thus a more viable strategy by which those towns couldbe suppliedwith infrastructurural andother urban services. The case of Yonkers thus suggests that local infrastructure development contributed to the proliferation of independent municipalities and the fragmentation of metropolitan regions. To the extent that metropolitan fragmentation creates an unequal distribution of resources across a metropolitan area, the case of Yonkers suggests further that infrastructurural development ultimately endangered municipalities’ future prosperity.