Shadowing evident throughout this painting establishes the distance of each building based on the light and dark shade of each one and helps make the crowd seem deeper than what we can actually see.
The significance of Bellows' willingness to stray away from his usual system of color and choose a more monochromatic scale of colors, shows the audience how unique this piece of art is and how it differs from all other works not only in subject or theme but also in color.