Early American Transportation

Over time, transportation has shown to have an incredible impact on the United States. It has revealed to bring about economic and social changes in various ways. In the late eighteenth century ancient methods of traveling were still in use in America and it was often very slow. Americans were aware that if transportation advancement occurred, it would potentially increase foreign trade, increase land values as well as strengthen the American economy. In the mid 1800s it has been determined that transportation advancement has a drastic effect on our

Railroads were a huge step in innovations for the United States. The transcontinental Railroad was

The railways became an important system that guided settlement and delivered economic opportunity for much of the United States. Railroads allowed access to places that people had no means of getting to and provided an opportunity to develop cities and towns

in the 1800s was the expansion of the west. Since the start of ideas like Manifest Destiny, it has always been a common belief that transportation was the best way to stay connected to the rest of the country. At first roads were used for this job, with one of the most famous being the National Road which connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a total length of 620 miles. After

After America acquired the West, the need for efficient transportation heightened. Ideas circulated about a railroad that would spread across the continent from East to West. Republican congresses ruled for the federal funding of railroad construction, however, all actions were halted for a few years on account of a war. Following the American Civil War of 1861-1865, the race to build transcontinental railroad began in 1866. Lincoln approved Pacific Railway Act of 1862, granting two railroad companies the right to build the first American transcontinental railroad, (Clark 432).

In the second half of the 1800 's, the railroad, which was invented in England,

To start, I will explain the purpose of the Transcontinental railroad. In Source #1”Full Steam Ahead The Transcontinental Railroad”, it says “People had been asking for coast-to-coast rail travel for decades. Since the invention of the locomotive in 1825, companies had built many rail lines. These railroads connected eastern cities and seaports,splashing travel times and helping these areas grow. Crossing the country, however was much more difficult. People and trade goods traveled by horse, stagecoach, or wagon train. The trip took months. Not many made the journey.” So the government during the time thought that building a railroad, would help businesses “ sprout up like corn.” According to Source #1 it also says “ Two companies immediately got to work. Railroads already existed that stretched from the East of Omaha, Nebraska. Now, the Union Pacific Railroad began extending the tracks from Omaha out to the West. The Central Pacific Railroad began in Sacramento,California and laid tracks out East. Eventually, the two companies would meet in Promontory, Utah. So, basically the purpose of the railroad was to get people and goods from coast-to-coast.

There was so many thing to get a person around the place but when the y can out with the steam boats and the R&R train there was a different way of getting to place to place. Back then there was so many thinning that was happening like cotton and rail road so they needed to find people to get it places so they made the train and steam boat. Transportation was a big deal back then likes who is going to take my things and stuff, and who was going to make it here. They all needed to make it place so someone in the South would use the steam boat to where they need to go and if they can’t make it that far they would have getting the train and get there place. People back then need transportation and they got two big ones.

The Transcontinental Railroad was a technological breakthrough that managed to make the USA feel smaller to travelers. Railroad systems had been in place decades before the transcontinental railroad had been constructed. However, these systems were not in synch as there were many different railroad companies and even more laws in place from state to state. This was in part due to the civil war, during this period both governments wanted better transportation of goods and troops. This caused many factors like track gauge (spacings of the rails) lengths to differ vastly. These differences in factors caused the slowing of transportation as, many of the times, people and goods being transported had to move trains where these railways met up. Also, many railways would not intersect towns, causing them to board trains on the other side of town. The Transcontinental Railroad was one of the stepping stones towards standardization as these factors were enforced by law for uniformity, and towns began to be built around these railways. This allowed people to travel from the eastern coast to the western coast without having to swap railways many times and would bring people and their ideas closer together, and, most importantly, caused the massive increase in western expansion. The transcontinental railroad was brought forth due to the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, Chinese laborers, and western migration allowing for decreased travel times, bulk movement of resources and products, and

“Before the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, it cost nearly $1,000 dollars to travel across the country. After the railroad was completed, the price dropped to $150 dollars.”(History.com Staff). Prior to the railroad the average citizen of America could not afford to travel across the country cheaply. America waited for a means of transportation which would connect them from the Western to Eastern states. The responsibility of creating the railroads were left up to construction companies. Once this invention was created, traveling became quick, easy and affordable. The Transcontinental Railroad could be defined as the most significant change in America, during the 19th Century.

In the early nineteenth century, the United States experienced a huge overhaul. Though the reformations and Jacksonian democracy were also important, the Market Revolution managed to transform the United States on a massive scale due to the expansion of transportation, the creation of new jobs, and the newfound prevalence of slavery. Prior to the Market Revolution, transportation was an issue. Whether it was the transportation of goods, the transportation of people, or the transportation of ideas, Americans, particularly those in the North, thought the transportation was too slow and came up with ways to combat the grueling speeds. From 1800 to 1830, a road stretching from Maryland to the Mississippi River was built.

In 1860, the United States had more railroad track than the rest of the world combined. Shipping freight by rail became much more practical and affordable, easily beating out the use of steamboats. The railroad directly led to the increase of urban centers. Chicago, for example, virtually quadrupled its population during the 1850’s. By the 1880’s, there were at least 93, 267 miles of rail that stretched across the plains and just ten years later, there were 163,597 miles of rail. By 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act, which gave the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads responsibility for building the transcontinental railroad. Congress also granted both railroads lands and millions of dollars of government loans. May 10, 1869, after six long years of hard intensive labor, the tracks of the two railroads finally met at

The development of the railroads was the beginning of a new transport system in America, it connected the east and west, and the communication across the continent grew easier. With the railroads brought new life to deserted towns, people settled along the railways, it was faster for people to travel from one way to the next, it was cheaper, and it led to new industries in lead,coal, and

During the Antebellum era there were a large number of advancements in transportation technology, such as railroads being placed all over the United States. There was also the building of numerous bridges and canals, and the development of the steamboat. During the pre-civil war period there was a huge expansion of railroads all over the country According to the web site quizlet, “From 1833 to 1850 the amount of railroad tracks increased from 136 miles to 9,000 miles” (http://quizlet.com). The first steam engine was built in 1804 by Richard Trevithick. The steam engine that was most commonly used on rail ways was that built by George Stephenson. According to Mary Bellis the author of The History of Railroad Innovations, “Stephenson's locomotive pulled six loaded coal cars and 21 passenger cars with 450 passengers over 9 miles in about one hour” (http://inventors.about.com). The growth of railroad use was a huge advancement in technology, because it helped transport people and goods to

Railroads began being built much more following the Civil War going from 35000 miles of track in 1865 to 192,556 miles in 1900