Essay On Steamboats

The railroad industry began to struggle when John D. Rockefeller built a pipeline to transport oil instead of the railroads causing many people to lose their jobs. As a result they rioted at Tom Scotts Pennsylvania railroad burning all his buildings trashing his livelihood. Andrew Carnegie felt this drove his mentor to his grave despite Scotts age.

Railroads were faster and cheaper than canals to construct, and they did not freeze over in the winter. Steamboats played a vital role in the United States economy as well. They stimulated the agricultural economy of the west by providing better access to markets at a lower cost. Farmers quickly bought land near navigable rivers, because they could ship their products out to other countries. Due to the foreign trade it helped strengthen the trade relationship between New England and the Northwest. The transportation development had many positive economic changes in the United States.

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

One of the most important goals of transportations in the 1800s was the advancement of industrial growth. Henry Clay, a senator for Kentucky had an economic plan called the American System, with plans for a national bank, improved tariffs, and most importantly, a canal system. The canal system was quickly dominated by railroad, however the canals paid for themselves quite quickly. This was due to the canal's ability to connect the midwest and east coast and cut costs for transporting goods across the US. Steamboats not only allowed for the mass transport of goods on the canals, but they also for human transport, as they could travel from Albany to NYC in around thirty-two hours. As rivers and canals became the commonplace and most efficient way to transport goods cities along the rivers prospered and grew in population and power. Cincinnati for example had its population quadruple in size from 10,000 to 40,000 from 1820-1840 and Louisville's population grew from 10,000 to 60,000 from 1830-1850. Eventually though, canals were made obsolete by development of railroads.

The transcontinental railroad was starting to be built in 1863 by two main companies, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. In the 1800’s the railroad was seen as one of the best things and also one of the worst things that took place in the US. The railroad brought many negative effects westward for the Native Americans and Chinese, but had many positive effects for Americans in the US. Some of these positive and negatives came from events like The Great Plains, Buffalo, Manifest Destiny, and Railroad Surveyors. This essay will focus on how railroad expanding westward created more positive opportunities for the Americans to start up new lives for themselves. But it will also focus on how the Americans and the railroad expanding westward took over the Natives Americans lives and left them with little to no land to survive with. Many other obstacles and situation also came along with the Americans as they tried to build up the railroad for the people of the US.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said once: “When it’s errands are noble and adequate, a steamboat bridging the Atlantic between Old and New England and arriving at its ports with the punctuality of a planet, is a step of man into harmony with nature.” Steamboats were essential to moving goods quickly without delay and people efficiently, which changed the face of the Earth. It changed the entire world with how fast it moved and it’s machinery and created a better way to travel over oceans. Robert Fulton is credited with creating the steamboat however, he only created the first functional and commercially successful steamboat. Born in Pennsylvania on November 14th, 1765, he spent lots of time in Lancaster, a hub of intellectual people and technology. After inventing the first submarine, he attempted multiple times to attack British naval ships with them. The French employed him for his experimental boats as they were in a war with Britain at the time, but after seeing that his boats were unsuccessful, they essentially fire him. The British sent an agent to recruit Fulton to create contingencies to submarine attacks. After working with them, he brought back a fully operational Watt steam engine. Using this, Robert Fulton invented

The first steamboat, which came to be known as the Clermont, was constructed by Robert Fulton in 1807. This development in transportation was huge. People could now ride rivers upstream as well as downstream, regardless of winds, waves, or tides. Steamboats were an important invention because they played a vital role in the opening of the West and the South, both of which had many easily navigable rivers. Towns soon began to develop along the banks of often-traversed rivers. Now farmers could ship in and out their produce and any manufactured necessities at a much lower cost.

There was an abundance of natural resources during this time period. The forests provided the wood needed to heat the rising growth of the factories and to supply paper for the increase of books and newspapers. The transportation growth provided people with a way tp receive literature in distant areas. Sawmills had to use the waterwheel for power. The steamboats pummeled a pathway through the rivers, but also deforested the land in their pathway. This brought about America’s first issue with air pollution.

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.

At first, overland travel was slow and expensive, and the west was isolated from the rest of the nation. Canals, steamboats, and railroads began to appear, resulting in faster travel, cheaper transport, and greater economic growth. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, connected New York City to the Great Lakes. It cut the trip time from twenty days to six days and made it much cheaper to ship goods, which later inspired many new canal projects. Additionally, steam engines used the steam produced by boiling water to drive machinery. They were developed as a new source of power in the early 1700s and improved by James Watt in 1765 to be used in factories and for transportation. In 1807, Robert Fulton used the idea of steam power to built one of the first boats powered by a steam engine. These steamboats could travel against the wind and against river currents, increased the speed and lowered the costs of river travel and shipping, and opened up the South and West to more travel and trade. Furthermore, in the 1830s, railroads were developed. Steampowered locomotives pulled trains of cars. Travel by train was faster than travel by horse and trains carried more cargo than other land transportation did. Thus, railroads could be built where there were no rivers. Before long, railroads spread rapidly across the United States and the miles of railroad tracks increased from 3,000 miles in 1840 to 30,000 in 1860. They were concentrated in the North, made shipping cheaper and faster, linked the East and the West, and helped industry

There was an abundance of natural resources during this time period. The forests provided the wood needed to heat the rising growth of the factories and to supply paper for the increase of books and newspapers. The transportation growth provided people with a way tp receive literature in distant areas. Sawmills had to use the waterwheel for power. The steamboats pummeled a pathway through the rivers, but also deforested the land in their pathway. This brought about America’s first issue with air pollution.

For example, Robert Fulton’s invention of the steamboat in 1807 allowed for fast two-way travel. The steamboat allowed the South to trade with the West quicker and more effectively. Also, it gave sailors the freedom to travel without dependence on the winds, making it possible for them to travel to any port at any time. To put in perspective the enormous change the steamboat brought about, a comparison of travel times could be made. For instance, it took the Clermont (1st commercial steamboat) 32 hours to travel from New York City to Albany, New York via the Hudson River while wind-powered sailing vessels averaged five days to travel from New York City to

A man by the name of James Watts introduced the first steam powered engine that would soon be used to power several forms of transportation. The steam engine had been around for a while, but wasn’t as advanced and wasn’t used on such a large scale such as powering transportation. Boats had been used for centuries for the main forms of transport, however, when Robert Fulton put the new steam engine to work to power a steamboat, it meant even more capital for businessmen. More jobs were created as the waterways were widened and dug deeper for the steamboats. Captains and crews were also formed to man the boats.

There was a need for this invention because of communication, trade, and travel. Ever since the steamboat communication could be sent more than one way out. Most

Next introduced were steamboats. Shipping by steamboats was cheaper and faster. If one used a wagon, there was the cost of lifting the cargo off the ground and keeping it there as well as the cost of moving the vehicle forward. A water vessel had the advantage of only having the cost of moving forward because the water lifted the cargo. The shallow draft steamboat, however, could carry large amounts of cargo even against the flow of a river. Robert Fulton's Clermont proved the practicality of steamboats in 1807. The Enterprise was introduced by Henry Shreve in 1814 and proved to be the answer to transportation across shallow western waters. By 1820, there were 60 steamboats on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and countless others elsewhere.