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What may happen in the next hundred years*
By John Elfreth Watkins Jr.

ou may not believe the strange prophesies I am about to
Ytell you. But, the most educated and conventional minds
in America have said they will come to pass. I have asked the
most rational and deliberate men in our greatest institutions
of science and learning, each in his turn, his opinion on how
his field o investigation will have advanced by the dawn of
2001 – 100 years from now. I have carefully transcribed the
opinions.

Americans will be from one to two inches taller. Extensive
improvements in areas like medicine, sanitation, nutrition
and physical fitness will contribute to their inc ease in
stature. They will live to be fi ty years old instead of thirty-
five as t this moment – this improvement will be the result
of living in the suburbs. There will be almost no houses in
the city. In just a few minutes, they will make the trip from
suburban home to office It will cost a penny.

There Will Be No Cars on the Street in the Large Cities.
High-speed vehicles will be below or high above the ground
when they enter city limits. In most cities, they will travel
in broad subways or tunnels, with plenty of lighting and
ventilation, or climb “moving ramps”supported by high
trestles leading to the top. Freight trucks with cushioned
wheels and high-volume passenger trains will fill these
underground or overhead streets. Subways and ramps
will be reserved for express trains. Therefore, noise will be
eliminated from the city.

Automobiles will be less expensive than horses are today.
On farms, hay-wagons, truck-wagons, hay-rakes, harrows
and plows will have automotive engines. A motor weighing

*Taken from a newspaper of 1900.

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