National Transportation Movements (Cumberland): National Railroads

It was very clear to many after the war of 1812 that only large-scale resources available to state and federal governments could make a practical difference their transportation. Transportation was very highly risky and very uncomfortable. Immediately after the war of 1812, a political prodigy, John Calhoun, introduced legislation in Congress to finance a national transportation program tying the South and West to the rest of the nation. Congress approved it, but James Madison vetoed the bill stating that the Constitution did not authorize federal spending on such projects. But finally, Calhoun won Madison’s support by convincing the president that a government-funded national road between Cumberland, Maryland, and Wheeling, Virginia, was a military and postal necessity, therefore initial expenditure of $20,000 for the Cumberland Road was constitutional. So the construction began in 1815.

Correspondingly, Slater learned most of his textile machinery skills from working with a professional in Britain. Thus being the one of the reasons why In the United Kingdom he is known as “Traitor Slater”. Another reason being that he brought the idea of industrialization to the new world. In 1790 he opened the first industrial mill with a design that replicated one from the British. His technology heightened the rate at which cotton could be spun into yarn.

“If any act symbolized the taming of the Northwest frontier, it was the driving of the final spike to complete the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.”1 The first railroad west of the Mississippi River was opened on December 23, 1852. Five miles long, the track ran from St. Louis to Cheltanham, Missouri. Twenty-five years prior, there were no railroads in the United States; twenty-five years later, railroads joined the east and west coasts from New York to San Francisco.2

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

for it (Cooke 254). If it had been left to the government, it would have taken

The Erie Canal was set in the state of New York which would be built to connect Albany and Buffalo. The concept of the Erie Canal began fifty years before actually starting construction in 1817. However, completion of the Erie Canal did not end until 1825 which resulted in a water route 364-miles long that connected the Hudson River in Albany and the Great lakes in Buffalo. Industrialization was sped up by the Erie Canal decades after it was completed because it improved transportation, trade, commerce and settlement in the United States.

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

Since the beginning of recorded history, mankind has been caught in the middle of being

“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.

One of the most important changes that the railroads caused was the increase of convenience

This made it very hard for the individual states to come up with the money. Usually private investors took care of this issue (Roark, 260). Canals were another way for an increase in transportation. They would connect cities, such as the Erie Canal, which covered the area between Albany and Buffalo and connecting New York City to the area of the Great Lakes (Roark, 261). Railroads also came into the picture with the first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio in 1829 (Roark, 262).

As the economy began to shift to larger-scale manufacturing, Britain began to fear that their technology would be replicated in America. Therefore Britain set laws in place to prohibit the exportation of any textile machinery and to prohibit textile factory workers from leaving the country. Nevertheless, technology escaped from Britain to America due to the cash bonuses offered by Americans for information about these machines (Reef 3). One such invention was Samuel Slater’s power loom which was introduced for the first time in America in 1789. Slater traveled to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where he was able to recreate the loom from memory of his apprenticeship with Richard Arkwright, a British inventor. Slater went on to launch the country’s mechanized cotton-spinning factory. His “Slater mills” were built along New England Rivers and they were wildly successful due to the inexpensiveness and speed of the production of cotton they made. The mills were very efficient and required many employees which gave jobs to thousands of Americans which fueled the American economy and introduced an entirely new social class. Samuel Slater was named the “founder of the American Industrial Revolution” and went on to introduce the first large-scale textile mills, which would transform the nation’s economy from agriculture to industry (“Slater, Samuel” 1).

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.

Roads and canals will shorten distances, effortless way to get somewhere, and facilitate commercial and personal communication. The first roads in America were developed by early settlers. “The National Road was the first highway built entirely with federal funds. The road was authorized by Congress in 1806 during the Jefferson Administration” (“The National Road” par. 1). The first 10 miles of roads were built. Wagons were slow and very difficult to use on dirt roads because of the weather. In 1811, the federal government opened the national road connecting Cumberland, Maryland to Ohio River. Road improvements may have made it possible for more people to live in a specific area, because access between that area and major job location centers is facilitated by the improved roads. Around 1821, there was around 4,000

Another great invention of transportation during this time was the train. America’s first train was invented by George Stephenson in 1822, and by 1825 the train was the first locomotive. Obviously everything at this time was made by hand, and every part of this engine had to be hammered into shape just like a horseshoe. John Thorswall, a coalmine blacksmith, was George’s assistant. The invention of George was very important in America because it allowed transportation from place to place in a quicker time. This boosted the economy by helping distribute many goods all around the country. Even letters were being delivered faster, so communication was increasing.