Improvements In Transportation Led To

Learning Objectives

By the end of this department, you will be able to:

• Describe the development of improved methods of nineteenth-century domestic transportation
• Identify the ways in which roads, canals, and railroads impacted Americans' lives in the nineteenth century

Americans in the early 1800s were a people on the move, as thousands left the eastern coastal states for opportunities in the West. Unlike their predecessors, who traveled by human foot or wagon train, these settlers had new transport options. Their trek was made possible by the structure of roads, canals, and railroads, projects that required the funding of the federal government and u.s..

New technologies, similar the steamship and railroad lines, had brought nearly what historians call the transportation revolution. States competed for the honor of having the virtually avant-garde transport systems. People celebrated the transformation of the wilderness into an orderly world of improvement demonstrating the steady march of progress and the greatness of the republic. In 1817, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina looked to a future of rapid internal improvements, declaring, "Let usa . . . bind the Republic together with a perfect arrangement of roads and canals." Americans agreed that internal transportation routes would promote progress. By the eve of the Ceremonious War, the U.s. had moved beyond roads and canals to a well-established and extensive system of railroads.

ROADS AND CANALS

1 key part of the transportation revolution was the widespread building of roads and turnpikes. In 1811, construction began on the Cumberland Road, a national highway that provided thousands with a route from Maryland to Illinois. The federal regime funded this important artery to the West, beginning the cosmos of a transportation infrastructure for the benefit of settlers and farmers. Other entities congenital turnpikes, which (equally today) charged fees for utilize. New York State, for instance, chartered turnpike companies that dramatically increased the miles of state roads from grand in 1810 to four g by 1820. New York led the style in edifice turnpikes.

Culvert mania swept the The states in the offset half of the nineteenth century. Promoters knew these artificial rivers could save travelers immense amounts of fourth dimension and coin. Even short waterways, such as the two-and-a-half-mile canal going around the rapids of the Ohio River near Louisville, Kentucky, proved a huge leap forrard, in this case by opening a water road from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. The preeminent example was the Erie Culvert, which linked the Hudson River, and thus New York City and the Atlantic seaboard, to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Valley.

Although the Erie Culvert was primarily used for commerce and trade, in Pittsford on the Erie Canal (1837), George Harvey portrays it in a pastoral, natural setting. Why exercise yous think the painter chose to portray the culvert this way?

With its central location, large harbor, and admission to the hinterland via the Hudson River, New York City already allowable the lion'southward share of commerce. Still, the city'southward merchants worried about losing ground to their competitors in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Their search for commercial advantage led to the dream of creating a water highway connecting the city'south Hudson River to Lake Erie and markets in the W. The result was the Erie Culvert. Chartered in 1817 by the state of New York, the canal took vii years to consummate. When information technology opened in 1825, it dramatically decreased the toll of aircraft while reducing the fourth dimension to travel to the West. Soon $15 million worth of goods (more than $200 million in today's coin) was being transported on the 363-mile waterway every year.

Explore the Erie Canal on ErieCanal.org via an interactive map. Click throughout the map for images of and artifacts from this historic waterway.

The success of the Erie Canal led to other, similar projects. The Wabash and Erie Culvert, which opened in the early 1840s, stretched over 450 miles, making it the longest canal in Due north America. Canals added immensely to the state's sense of progress. Indeed, they appeared to exist the logical next step in the process of transforming wilderness into civilization.

This map (a) shows the route taken by the Wabash and Erie Canal through the land of Indiana. The culvert began operation in 1843 and boats operated on it until the 1870s. Sections have since been restored, as shown in this 2007 photo (b) from Delphi, Indiana.

Visit Southern Indiana Trails to see historic photographs of the Wabash and Erie Canal:

As with highway projects such as the Cumberland Road, many canals were federally sponsored, especially during the presidency of John Quincy Adams in the late 1820s. Adams, forth with Secretary of State Henry Clay, championed what was known every bit the American System, part of which included plans for a broad range of internal transportation improvements. Adams endorsed the cosmos of roads and canals to facilitate commerce and develop markets for agriculture also every bit to advance settlement in the West.

RAILROADS

Starting in the late 1820s, steam locomotives began to compete with horse-drawn locomotives. The railroads with steam locomotives offered a new mode of transportation that fascinated citizens, buoying their optimistic view of the possibilities of technological progress. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was the start to brainstorm service with a steam locomotive. Its inaugural train ran in 1831 on a rail outside Albany and covered twelve miles in 20-5 minutes. Soon information technology was traveling regularly betwixt Albany and Schenectady.

Toward the middle of the century, railroad construction kicked into high gear, and eager investors quickly formed a number of railroad companies. Every bit a railroad grid began to take shape, it stimulated a greater demand for coal, iron, and steel. Soon, both railroads and canals crisscrossed the states, providing a transportation infrastructure that fueled the growth of American commerce. Indeed, the transportation revolution led to development in the coal, atomic number 26, and steel industries, providing many Americans with new job opportunities.

This 1853 map of the "Empire State" shows the extent of New York's culvert and railroad networks. The entire state's transportation infrastructure grew dramatically during the commencement half of the nineteenth century.

AMERICANS ON THE MOVE

The expansion of roads, canals, and railroads changed people's lives. In 1786, information technology had taken a minimum of four days to travel from Boston, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Isle. By 1840, the trip took half a day on a train. In the xx-outset century, this may seem intolerably slow, merely people at the time were amazed by the railroad's speed. Its average of twenty miles per 60 minutes was twice as fast equally other bachelor modes of transportation.

By 1840, more than three thousand miles of canals had been dug in the United states of america, and thirty chiliad miles of railroad track had been laid by the commencement of the Civil State of war. Together with the hundreds of steamboats that plied American rivers, these advances in transportation fabricated it easier and less expensive to ship agricultural products from the W to feed people in eastern cities, and to send manufactured goods from the Eastward to people in the W. Without this ability to transport appurtenances, the market revolution would not have been possible. Rural families also became less isolated as a result of the transportation revolution. Traveling circuses, menageries, peddlers, and afoot painters could at present more easily brand their style into rural districts, and people in search of work found cities and mill towns within their reach.

Section Summary

A transportation infrastructure quickly took shape in the 1800s every bit American investors and the government began edifice roads, turnpikes, canals, and railroads. The time required to travel shrank vastly, and people marveled at their ability to conquer great distances, enhancing their sense of the steady advance of progress. The transportation revolution also made it possible to send agricultural and manufactured appurtenances throughout the land and enabled rural people to travel to towns and cities for employment opportunities.

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Review Question

1. What were the benefits of the transportation revolution?

Answer to Review Question

1. The Cumberland Road made transportation to the West easier for new settlers. The Erie Culvert facilitated trade with the Due west by connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Railroads shortened transportation times throughout the state, making it easier and less expensive to move people and appurtenances.

Glossary

Cumberland Roada national highway that provided thousands with a route from Maryland to Illinois

Erie Canala canal that connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie and markets in the Westward

Mohawk and Hudson Railroadthe first steam-powered locomotive railroad in the United States

Improvements In Transportation Led To,

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/ushistory1os2xmaster/chapter/on-the-move-the-transportation-revolution/#:~:text=Soon%2C%20both%20railroads%20and%20canals,Americans%20with%20new%20job%20opportunities.

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