The 19th century is remembered as a century of transformations changing Valencia into a bourgeois and industrial city. By mid-century, Valencia began its industrial boom, made possible by improvements in urban infrastructure (ports, roads, etc.). The city grew powerfully in the following decades; in 1865, Valencia demolished its walls in order to accommodate the city’s growth and introduced new infrastructure such as drinking water, gas, and electricity. The 1909 Regional Exhibition was a showcase of the great advances of the time.  However, these advances progressed amid the increasingly deteriorating climate of social inequality, revealing the darker side of economic progress.