The Earliest Form Of Transportation Was Human Transport

The fourth important invention was trains and railroads. Much like steamboats, railroads made transportation much easier. Soon after the first railroad appeared in the United States in 1828, miles and miles of railing covered American soil. Able to go almost anywhere, even through the Allegheny Mountains, trains ignored any rocky terrain or bad weather. Railroads were a very important invention because it literally bound American together with braces of iron. It became easy to ship goods from state to state, North to South, or South to West. Each region became more dependent and closely tied with the others.

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

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.

“The water-frame used the waterpower from fast-flowing streams to drive spinning wheels.” (course reader 102) Then there was the introduction of the steam engine and power-loom. Due to an expired patent, James Watt decided to create his version of the steam engine for use in a cotton mill plant and introduced a system for the factory that was revolutionary. As a result, wages and manufacturing of cotton and iron really increased. This helped get more work done in less time and gave people jobs. (Document 2) The steam engines also helped get the economy ramped up by being able to bring supplies to the cities and more jobs to people. The steam engines provided jobs because they needed miners, engineers, and sailors who could build the canals and railroads for this transportation. As a result, they could bring supplies to the cities which also increased farmland available to produce more food for everyone. (Document 3) The steam engine brought in railroad development, industrialization and changes to the population. (Document 9) With the growth of railways and transportation, from 1801-1851, many cities were developed within the central part of Great Britain and the population

Today’s America was built slowly, but the early 1800s was a great time of new ideas and inventions. New modes of transport and communication were invented and to this day, are still used whether they have been upgraded or tweaked. A huge part of modern-day America was the Louisiana Purchase which was part of the ideology of Manifest Destiny. The new modes of transport in the early 1800s; railroads and canals were both time efficient and cost effective compared to the old ways of transport via wagons or horse drawn carts.

Walking, that’s the original mode of transportation. The only things that could be moved are the things that can be carried and the furthest part of the world was the furthest part a human could walk to. Then came sailboats and wheels and the world was drastically changed forever. Everything changed. No one could walk on water so sailboats were the first things used to travel the rest of the world. There was more land and more water than anyone man could walk to. Sailboats helped with that. When someone arrives in those places how is he or she supposed to carry everything? That is when the wheel became so important. People had carriages and wagons and animals to pull those things which are on wheels. The entire world changed as transportation

The steamboat was an invention that reduced manual labor aboard ships by a large extent, and were also faster than the previous sail ships. Not only were these good at transporting goods, they could also transport people via river and ocean quite effectively. Larger versions were produced for trans-oceanic voyages. The transcontinental railroad did the same thing, but faster, and on land. The refrigerator car was especially useful because you could pack meat in Chicago, and send it to California without it spoiling. This quick transportation of goods quickly renovated

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

Before railroads were ever implemented into American society, there was another form of primary transportation. In the early 1800s, goods and passengers were carried by ships. For some time, boats on rivers, lakes, and the ocean proved to be adequate enough to convey freight and people where it needed to go. However, these methods of transportation often posed problems of being too slow and too inconvenient. First appearing in the 1830s, the railroad business grew and in 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed, allowing people to think about more efficient settlement across the country. Railroads were the fountainhead of American expansion because they provided for town and city creation and development across the entire United States.

In the years before the addition of railroad systems to the West, stagecoaches would make up a large portion of trade and travel routes. Wagons pulled by mules and other animals would contribute to the success of mining and military operations. Mail would also be delivered using these methods, though the slowness of it eventually led to the founding of the pony express. Although expensive to utilize, the pony express was an example of efficient and organized work. Coaches would, for a short time, pass between smaller towns until dying off in the presence of railroads.

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.

In addition with the invention of the steam engine came the steam locomotive. As the development of steam engines progressed through the 18th century, various attempts were made to apply them to road and railway us. In 1812 Matthew Murray was the first to build a successful steam locomotive, and it hauled 27 carts of around 95 tonnes at 3 mph. Accompanied with this came Richard Trevithick’s 40 psi steam locomotive, The Penydarren Locomotive, “the world's first ever railway journey that ran 9 miles from the ironworks at Penydarren to the Merthyr-Cardiff Canal, South Wales.” This creation lead to many more innovations, which will lead to speedy land travel for goods and products.

In 3500 BC a wooden cylinder was connected to a stable; this contraption is called a wheel. This made it easier to haul farming equipment from one field to another. Only men used the invention because women were never out in the field (Revolutionary). The only form of transportation until the year of 1769 was train, horse and carriage, then, the first car was invented. “Nicolas Joseph Cugnot was a French military engineer and built the car for hauling auxiliary” (II history). The maximum speed of the 8,000 pound car was two miles per hour, carried four passengers and ran out of gas in about fifteen minutes (history staff). This car was very expensive, the few men that owned them were the only people to drive them. Women were thought to have

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.

The canalization of rivers, the steam engine, and railways were key components of the development of industry [2]. The extensive canal system was created around the mid 1700s to move goods and supplies inland. This system was cheaper and quicker than shipping goods over land [3]. The steam engine, however, was the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the invention of steam power, factories were located along rivers and used water for power. The development of a practical, efficient steam engine and its application to industry and transportation was a great leap in progress for industrialization. The steam engine’s application was limitless, and it was responsible for lifting industries from infancy to adolescence. Steam engines were used to develop machines that operated factory systems, pumps for mines, faster ships, and locomotives. A steam locomotive was able to carry raw materials and products very quickly. The expansion of the uses of the steam engine created the steam locomotive and a greater need for a railroad system. As a result, Railroads multiplied rapidly in England from 1,000 miles in 1836 to more than 7,000 miles by 1852 [4]. Machinery took the place of the work of many humans and made the work easier on others.