Large-scale consequences to the
environment were hard to imagine in a
country of such immense proportions
and seemingly infi nite resources. But
the impact of industrialization was more
immediate for the urban dweller. As the
century wore on and the frontier drew
nearer, people reexamined their relationship
to the landscape. The important
contributions to the history of landscape
architecture in 19th-century
America were the public park and the
idea of a wilderness aesthetic. What is
particularly American about these land
uses is the fact that citizen initiative
was integral to their creation.