During the rest of the 20th century Mexico DF has experienced the phenomenal growth of the city and its environmental and political Costs. The population in the year 1900of Mexico City was about 500,000.

Thereafter, the city began to grow quickly westward in the early part of the twentieth century and then began to grow upwards in the early 1950s, with the now infamous Torre Latinoamericana becoming MEXICO DF´s first skyscraper.

The Olympic Games held here in 1968 brought about the construction of large sporting facilities. Then, in 1969, the excellent Mexico DF Metro system was inaugurated. Due to the above factors and the accumulation of wealth in the area, explosive growth in the population of the city started in the 1960s, with the population overflowing the boundaries of the Federal District into the neighboring state of Mexico, particularly to the north, northwest and northeast. Between 1960 and 1980 the city’s population experienced massive increases when it more than doubled to 8.9 million. In 1980, 50% of all the industrial jobs in Mexico were located in Mexico City meaning that many provinces and major cities lost their populations as people gravitated to almost guaranteed employment in Mexico DF. Under persistent growth, the Mexico City government could hardly keep up with basic services to meet the demands of its population. Mexicans from rural areas continued to pour into the city to escape poverty which only escalated the city’s problems. With little housing available, local migrants took over lands surrounding the city, creating mammoth shantytowns that ran for many miles. This caused severe air pollution in Mexico City and also massive water pollution problems, as well as a sinking city primarily due to over extraction of groundwater and directly related subsidence. Due to government programs, air and water pollution has been contained and improved in many areas of Mexico DF, the renovation of vehicles with catalytic converters and the modernization of public transportation by utilizing cleaner electric power sources.