The Transportation Revolution: The Five Causes Of The Industrial Revolution

Unfortunately, with few exceptions, navigable rivers and lakes did not link up conveniently to form usable transportation networks. Before the war of 1812m some Americans considered canals as a likely solution, but enormous costs and engineering problems had limited canal construction to less than 100 miles. After the war, the entry of development opened the way to an era of canal building. New York State was most successful at canal development. In 1817 the state started work on on a canal that would run over more than 350 miles’ form Lake Erie to the Hudson River. About three thousand workers worked on digging a huge ditch that would eventually form the Erie Canal. The last leg was completed in 1825 and the first freight boat made its way from Buffalo to Albany and then on to New York

When the Canal was built towns all along the route from Buffalo to Albany prospered from the revenue and the attraction the Canal brought with it. Whether the Canal was being used for business people, immigrants, settlers of the region, or tourists, the border-towns all had some appeal to these persons. After some time the state was continually asked to expand the Canal from the original route to include connecting canal routes. However, the same towns along the route from Buffalo to Albany had already been established along the lines of the original canal. These towns would need to be relocated in order to obey these new requests. This presented a major problem because the people in these towns had formed a life around the Canal and many of them made their income based of the Canal. The inhabitants of the towns changed their mentality from not wanting the Canal to invade on their lives, to it being an essential part of their lives they depended upon.

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.

In the early 19th century the transportation of goods between the east and west was expensive and time consuming. The normal way of transportation before the canal, was by horse drawn carriages. Then the bold idea of the Erie Canal was proposed to ease the tiring commute. The Erie canal was intentionally built to open the country west of the Appalachian Mountains to settlers. The canal would also provide a safe, cheaper way for produce to be carried to various markets. The canal then became the fastest way

Numerous factors brought unity to an adolescent nation which prevailed the confidence Americans needed for self-identity. As rapid mass-communication and transportation became easily available, any individual had the luxury of pursuing a life with personal freedoms just a grasp away. Moving west was made attractive for numerous reasons. For example, shipping products such as beaver fur enable a fashionable trend which sparked a demand in garments. The construction of the Erie Canal in 1825 that connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River boomed the motivation, whether it was cost effective or not, completing miles into small distances, according to a journalist, “In thirty-six minutes we had passed near three miles, and reached the east of an embankment about 136 chains long across the valley of the Sedaqueda creek”. This economic process boomed with new opportunities for average Americans during the Era of Good Feeling. The early republic also had more busted effects from internal

Not only were economics majorly revolutionized during this time period but transportation transformed as well. Before the invention of the steam engine, goods were hauled by horse drawn carriages and the journey was a long and difficult one. Robert Fulton was the first to build a steamboat successfully. This caused for a wave of change and soon goods were hauled across the Atlantic (“Industrial Revolution”) After the rapid success of the steamboat, soon steam locomotives began to take the spotlight. The steamboat and locomotive enabled Americans to travel to different parts of the country in less tie add connected the U.S in a way that it had never been before.

In Document 1A, it explains that the Erie Canal was a canal built in 1825, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Erie. It caused a huge increase in the industry along the Hudson River and made the economy of New York more important than ever. As stated in Document 1B, New York City became the busiest port in America. As stated in Document

The Erie canal helped shape America. The Northwest was expanding and needed to get their products to the east coast. However, they seemed to be lacking a water source. Since the Erie canal was connected from the Hudson river to the Great lakes this made it possible for farmers to transport goods to the east coast without a problem. The Erie canal paved the pathway to a more stable America and an economic growth by allowing transportation, trade, exporting and importing goods to be more accessible through the United States. “This great work will immortalize the present authorities of N.Y. will bless their descendants with wealth and prosperity, and prove to mankind the superiority wisdom of employing the resources of industry in works of improvement rather than destruction.” The canal combined trade and transportation allowing for commerce to help speed up the Industrialization in the United States after the Erie canal was

First off, The Erie Canal changed America in many different ways such as trade, travel safety, and woman's rights (Background Essay) It took 8 years to complete the Erie Canal, it was 363 miles long, when they finished it, it had become a much safer way for transportation (Doc 4). People got killed while traveling " A young English woman met with her death a short time since, she having fallen asleep with her head upon a box, had her head crushed to pieces." The Erie Canal has made transportation more safer for other to travel places, it not only was safer but much faster, It made traffic go faster by making this Canal. Finally, the Canal brought less dangerous traffic, they had really low bridges so they knew they were coming to a town.

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).

The nation’s populous moved and spread out towards the west. The industrial revolution had started in 1800 and New England produced water powered mills, and American factory systems was introduced. Toll roads were introduced in 1806.

During the revolution, new roads, financed by tolls, then began developing. One major road was the National Road that reached from Maryland to West Virginia. Another new form of transportation was canals, which was cheaper and more efficient. A significant improvement in transportation was the steamboat, which reduced the cost of transportation, moved people and goods faster, and allowed a two-way commerce on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Railroads were also a significant development because it allowed fast travel on land. Factories developed during this time, and people began working there instead of at home. All of these changes allowed people to produce goods to sell more than to keep for themselves, and the economy

The Transportation Revolution caused the market of the northern states to change, while the southern states market stayed the same. Before 1815, Americans had exported around 15 percent of their total national product (Murrin p.g 298). By the year 1830, exports only counted for 6 percent of the vastly increased national production (Murrin p.g 298). The United Sates developed a self sustaining markets for farm produce, as well as manufactured goods (Murrin p.g 298). Farmers of New England traded food for finished goods from Boston as well as other towns. Throughout the West, market oriented farmers would provide food for cities like Rochester, and Cincinnati, which in turn would supply the farmers with manufactured farm tools, furniture

Prior to the Transportation Revolution, the majority of goods were transported by boat, which created issues when goods were required to be transported to areas without waterways, as there was no fast form of land transportation that could carry large amounts of goods. During the Transportation Revolution, however, trains and steamships were introduced, which revolutionized the way goods were transported, as trains allowed for fast and efficient land travel, while steamships made sea travel easier and removed some weather constraints. These innovations allowed goods to reach new areas in record time, and also created new jobs and discoveries as people searched for ways to improve these new methods of transportation. Without these advancements, it is likely that, due to the speed at which goods would be transported, progress would slow down immensely, as it would be much more difficult to move supplies to cities regardless of location at a practical

It can be said that without the growth and innovation of Britain’s transport through the 18th to 19th century, the British economy and the resulting empire would not have experienced drastic economic change and development as it had done. The advances in road, canal and railway were of remarkable importance on their impact in reducing transport costs, resulting in increased economic growth and GDP, living standards and labour mobility, all which bolstered the growth of the industrial revolution. Most importantly however, was the impact transport advances had on the integration of the market, allowing a move from local to national industry. The advances in transport refer to the move away from dirt road and stage-coaches to a move to canals