Try This Quiz on Innovations That Changed Cities

The first parking meter was designed by engineering professors Holger George Thuessen and Gerald A. Hale, who invented the machine for a contest at the University of Oklahoma, and dubbed it the “Black Maria.” The goal was to find an invention that would solve the overparking problem in downtown Oklahoma City. The first meter was installed on July 16, 1935.

The first electric traffic light was installed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1914. It used red and green lights to indicate stop and go, and yellow was added later. Before the traffic light innovation, roads were chaotic, as automobiles, horses, streetcars, and bicycles all battled for right-of-way. The traffic light decreased collisions and kept traffic flowing.

Vegetable oil, coal gas, and volcanic gas were all used for street lighting before electricity. The ancient Chinese funneled volcanic gas through bamboo pipes to fuel streetlamps, and the ancient Romans used oil lamps filled with vegetable oil. In the 19th century, England and the U.S. used coal gas for streetlights. Halogen gas wasn’t used until the commercialization of the light bulb in 1880.

The first rapid public transit system in the U.S. was the Chicago “L” Train, installed in 1895. The elevated train system was the brainchild of inventor Franklin Sprague. Sprague designed the entire system to run on an electric motor and each passenger car to have its own control unit for greater speed and acceleration. The first underground subway system opened two years later in Boston.

Between 1902 and 1917, electric streetcars replaced horse-drawn carriages in cities throughout the U.S. and Europe. Each streetcar was powered by a generator that transmitted electricity through overhead wires. Streetcar systems were a significant innovation for urban growth, extending transportation lines from the city center into the suburbs.

Automatic fire sprinklers were the most significant innovation in modern fire-safety. After a string of blazes ravaged major cities across the U.S., including San Francisco and Chicago, Frederick Grinnell patented the first valve-controlled sprinkler system in 1881. Building owners were among the first to adopt the new technology as an inexpensive way to put out small fires before they spread.

The ancient Romans installed the first citywide sewage system around 500 BCE. The underground sewer system was powered by aqueducts and ran from the Roman Forum to the Tiber River. The citywide system was named the Cloaca Maxima (“Great Sewer”) in honor of the goddess of purification. Sections of the system still work today.

After electric lighting became common through the U.S. and Europe in the 1890s, city living extended long after sundown, as restaurants, bars, clubs, and baseball games could be illuminated throughout the night.

Skyscrapers wouldn’t be possible without the elevator. Invented in 1854, the mechanical lift made it easier to access the higher floors of a multi-story building, and allowed developers to expand urban living and commercial space vertically. In 1913, the 55-story Woolworth Building in New York City was completed and became the tallest building with passenger elevators in the world at that time.

The world’s first telephone booth was installed in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1889. Its simple purpose was to allow the public to make phone calls when they were away from home. By the 1990s, more than 2 million booths had been installed across the U.S. Now that most people have cell phones, however, the need for public phones has dwindled, and there are fewer than 300,000 booths left in the country.