U.S. Congress: Why do we have both a Senate and House of Representatives?

Complementing Stephanie Vardavas' answer, this is a result of a fight between the states in the early days of the US's history.  The US has technically had four governments:

1. First Continental Congress
2. Second Continental Congress
3. Articles of Confederation
4. United States Constitution

Each of the first three was an experiment that failed for various reasons.  Contrary to what many people think, the Founding Fathers of the United States were not chummy, but in-fighting, bitchy, querulous, head-strong individuals who played political games and had differing opinions about what would make a great nation.  Some didn't even really want a "United States" but a loose alliance of the 13 colonies.  Some wanted a strong United States' "Federal" (not a term they used then) Government. 

These men were not prescient and when they finally agreed upon the basic structure of the federal government, it was -- for many of them -- a stopgap measure.  Some thought the federal government too strong and that the individual states would soon cast it off in favor of a weaker one.  Some thought it too weak and the states would soon create a newer, stronger one.  On the whole, most had doubts that the Constitution that survives to this day would last very long at all. 

But it did, and one of the reasons it did was due to the Connecticut Compromise (aka, "The Great Compromise" -- links to Wikipedia which has a well-vetted, well-cited page that is likely as factually correct as any available) proposed by Roger Sherman.  Large, populous states like Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York wanted a popularly apportioned legislature.  Smaller states like Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Deleware wanted an evenly proportioned legislature to prevent the bigger states from dominating the new government. 

Also important to note, at the time of the creation of the Constitution, the Southern States were the "fast growing, innovating" states and the Northern States were worried about popular apportionment in the legislature.  There were also issues of taxation and where bills regarding revenue would be proposed (Wikipedia):

What was ultimately included in the constitution was a modified form of this plan, partly because the larger states disliked it. In the Committee of Detail, Benjamin Franklin modified Sherman's proposal to make it more acceptable to the larger states. He added the requirement that revenue bills originate in the house, and that senate delegations be severed from the state legislatures. During prior assemblies, such as the Confederation Congress, the state delegations would vote as a block as instructed by the state legislatures. Franklin modified this so that the senators would not vote as a block. This freed them from pressure from state legislatures and made them free agents.[6] As such, the senate would bring a federal character to the government, not because senators were elected by state legislatures, but because each state was equally represented in the senate, which was the main aim of the smaller states.

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