A Culture of Movement

How can the Internet, a digital infrastructure, act as a channel for cultural growth as successfully as Manhattan has become the social, political and economic center of movement for the world? One simple answer is embedded in the historical relationship between the transportation and the culture of a given place. The strongest reciprocating elements of a civilization can be understood through the ways in which people share goods and services as well as information to grow culturally. An urban culture that is rich with industrial infrastructure has always had the capacity to be in a constant state of growth. As new waves of people inhabit and move through the city, cultural shifts shape the place like changing tides on a river’s bank. The culture is constantly evolving as a direct result of movement of people and ideological change. On the opposite end of the spectrum, cultures that exist in more rural conditions have often been left developmentally static without serious industrial infrastructure. If very few people move through a place, very few cultural ideas will change. When the ideas of a culture are left to tradition instead of demand, disconnect is made between generations of citizens. The result of such disconnect suggests that extinction of culture is more common than the intellectual evolution of a people without access to a movement of ideas. Now that the Twentieth Century has ended, and the industrial era of the United States has come to a rest, the opportunity for a new cultural movement has arisen. The digital infrastructure of the Internet has become the Twenty First Century highway of movement of ideas and opportunity.  As

various American cities struggle to maintain their industrial culture, investments made in the movement of information via the Internet are reaching destinations at the farthest corners of the earth. While the industry decays, the Internet has become a super-highway of cultural movements and revenue.

New York City was originally established as a trading post for furs, as the population began to fill in, the land began to clad itself with agriculture. The financial engine of Manhattan is debted to the introduction of the grid, allowing for swift movement through the city and easy navigation. As floods of immigrants moved into the city, there became a very bold idea to start connecting New York to Brooklyn. A series of ferries and bridges were employed to move people and goods back and forth. When the Brooklyn Bridge was built, it was intended to connect the two landmasses as well as boost the morale and affect the psyche of the citizens of New York. The bridge became a whole new idea of movement where instead of wind power, people were beginning to depend on man power to move goods; i.e. trains, bridges, roads, and eventually airplanes. New York, the new Modern city promised that anyone could get anywhere they wanted to, quickly in the same ways that the World Wide Web can bring any user from their desk or couch into any imaginable destination of information, no matter how specific or mysterious. The constant flow of people in a city such as New York can be compared to the constant exchange of information that is streaming through the fiber networks of the Internet. Now, instead of moving natural resources across town in a few

minutes, the Internet is allowing people to move data across the globe in a fraction of a second. The opportunity for cultural movement is present in the U.S., but an opportunity is only as valuable as the people who act on it. Currently the U.S. is only equipped to provide high-speed Internet access to 60% of its total population. This means that 122,800,000 people in the United States are being denied access to the largest, most globally accessible network of data, culture, economy, and entertainment the world has ever seen.

Grand Central station was an extraordinary project where commuters where congregated, underground in a station five city-blocks wide. Grand Central became a place where anyone could move anything, anywhere. The grid system of NYC worked so well, that land values skyrocketed, leaving the island of Manhattan with a very unique archetype. Buildings built to make money, not to perform a demanded function. It is through the infrastructure of movement and transportation that the value of architecture is realized by a culture. Money is the number one driver of architecture, and every culture needs revenue. In order for a place to satisfy the cultural demands of its people, it must maintain movement of people and goods. Grand Central Terminal was an investment in industrial infrastructure, pertinent to the demands and technology of New York City culture in the 1920’s. Now, nearly 90 years later, a new cultural demand has presented itself, loud and clear. The United States needs to invest in a strong digital infrastructure. It is time for the nation to move information as efficiently as Manhattan moves goods. Given the opportunity, American towns cities can see a new wave of cultural growth and prosperity with the proper channel.

Originally railroads were a private enterprise. When New York’s governor decided that the state needed to move goods with a more constant flow, the Erie canal was built to interrupt the natural routes of trade. To counter act the canal system, private railroad companies popped up to undercut and over move the transportation happening through the canal system. When a new system was created, new towns were created, new cultures established and finally tradition, history and heritage is born. The construction of the Erie Canal was a major investment of time, money and manpower. A project thought of as wasteful and over zealous in its moment of inception, the canal forever changed the world as its success strengthened the economy and culture of New York City, propelling the urbanism to the top of the world’s markets. The U.S. has a new opportunity to invest in a new form of movement that will indefinitely bear reciprocity with its investors. The opportunity is here to act on and the longer the country waits to capitalize, the further behind the country falls behind the developing nations of the world. The Internet is not going to become any less significant in its contribution to world culture and economy.

Once, the road systems, military fleets, and movement of goods defined the most successful cultures. Next, with the progression of science and technology, cultures around the world are growing at a rapid rate, the earth is getting smaller and the movement of people, goods, and resources is becoming more necessary for economic survival in a world market and global economy.  Now, the Internet is the new channel of movement, and the success of a culture is based a how quickly and efficiently information is streaming out of it. The Internet is incredibly cheap to invest in leaving no excuse to ignorant infrastructural neglect. Like a cyclical wheel of history, transportation has seen many faces of innovation and engineering, often resulting in a massive cultural shift and overhaul of the ways in which people view themselves as collective group. If culture in the United States is to grow and expand, a larger system must be created to move the waves of data and cultural push.