Download The Transportation Revolution Highways o 1790`s – Lancaster

The Transportation Revolution
Highways
o 1790’s – Lancaster Turnpike (Pennsylvania
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Toll road – 62 miles from Philadelphia to Lancaster
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Attracted trade to Pennsylvania, and was profitable – sparked a turnpike building craze
o 1811 – 1852– The National Road/Cumberland Road
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591 miles from Maryland to Illinois
The Steamboat
o Robert Fulton (1807) invented the Clermont – “Fulton’s Folly”
o Proved to be revolutionary, allowing for upstream, upwind, anywhere with water, travel
o 1820 – 60 steamboats on the Miss. River, 1860 – 1000+
o Population gathered on the shores of large rivers, and the west was opened further
o Faster, cheaper shipping allowed for more expansive trade of food and goods, and cheaper prices
The Canal Building Craze
o “Clinton’s Big Ditch”
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Governor DeWitt Clinton proposed the Erie Canal – connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River
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1817-1825, stretched 363 miles
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Cost of shipping 1 ton of grain from Buffalo to NYC fell from $100 to $5, and to 6 days, from 20
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Value of land near canals skyrocketed, and cities like Syracuse and Rochester boomed
o In the Midwest, steamboats on the Great Lakes connected with canal barges
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Growth of waterside cities – Chicago, Cincinnati, and Detroit
o The plummeting price of crops from the west led many northerners to abandon farming
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Many became workers in the growing mills and factories of the north
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Other fled to the west, to buy farmland in the Great lakes region
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Others began specializing in fruit, vegetable or dairy farming
The Iron Horse
o The first railroad in the United States was created in 1830
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Baltimore and Ohio Railroad – 13 mile track
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Mohawk and Hudson – New York (1831)
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Most of the early railroads served to connect water routes
o Initially, many were skeptical of the railroads
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New York attempted to protect its investment in the Erie Canal by prohibiting railroads from carrying freight
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The sparks from the railroads set nearby houses, haystacks, and even the passenger cars on fire
o Many of the early tracks were laid by independent contractors in the different states
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Often of different gauge, long distance travel was interrupted, and people/materials had to change trains frequently
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Brakes were often poor, making missing stations common, and schedules were unpredictable, at best
o In the 1850’s, a major railroad boom hit the United States
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Many of the smaller lines blended together, and large “trunk” lines crossed from the east into the west
New York Central and New York and Erie both connected NYC to Lake Erie
The Baltimore and Ohio went from Maryland to the Ohio River
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Chicago became a major city due to railroad traffic of fifteen independent train lines and 100 trains/day
o By 1860, 30,000 miles of track, mostly in the industrial north
Cables, Clippers and Pony Riders
o In 1858 (temporary), and in 1866 (permanent) cable was laid between North American and Europe, allowing faster
communication
o The clipper ship was invented in the 1840’s, and came to briefly dominate trade with its speed
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The age of the clipper ship was brief, as the British tramp steamer began to outpace it
o The Pony Express
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Route from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, CA
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Lost money and was eventually sunk by the telegraph, lasting only about 18 months
The Transportation Web
o The “natural” flow of goods began to shift
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The creation of canals and railroads shifted shipping off the Mississippi River, to the east
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Grain shipping shifted, and New York City replaced New Orleans as the primary point of departure for export crops
o The American economy became truly interconnected , with three distinct regions each playing a vital role