To a discussion in a history class. Did anyone happen to catch the american metropolis last night? It was about the growth of cities. I didn't see that, but I did see part of a documentary last week that told about a guy. I think he was a visitor from another country who wrote a book about the growth of industry and so on, the things we've just studied. I remember he said there was a huge population explosion that turned america into a nation of cities all within a decade. He was talking mostly about baltimore, baltimore, and then or now in the nineteenth century, right after the civil war. The program you saw was part of the same series as the one I want to tell you about. Last night, the topic was New York City. As early as eighteen eighty, the federal government wrote a report on how the five separate municipalities of new york actually constituted one vast metropolitan area. It was a progressive way of thinking at the time. And within twenty years, those five municipalities were official, united as a single city by a vote of the people. To this day, however, each barrel maintains traces of its original independence. I agree with that. I'm from brooklyn, and it's definitely different from the rest of new York.