Transportation

Wilderness & Frontier

“Wilderness” and “Frontier” : two concepts used by Euromericans to describe the American Landscape.

• Wilderness: “refers to those areas where Euromericans had no control over land use and which were not subject to European system of land tenure”

• Frontier: “ is the area in which Euromericans and Native Americans were contending for land control, and to which the European system of land tenure was in the process of being applied”

Wilderness

“refers to those areas where Euromericans had no control over land use and which were not subject to European system of land tenure”

Frontier:

“ is the area in which Euromericans and Native Americans were contending for land control, and to which the European system of land tenure was in the process of being applied”

Role of transportation in the settlement process

• Innovation of different transportation systems was very important to the transition from wilderness through frontier to settlements

• Transportation systems were only second to Agriculture in their lasting effects on the on the American Landscape

  • Road Travel

  • Water Travel

  • Rail Road Travel

Agriculture

Transportation systems were only second to ___________ in their lasting effects on the on the American Landscape

Three Main Modes of Travel for Euromericans at this time

• Road Travel

• Water Travel

• Rail Road Travel

Road Travel

• Earliest inland transportation were Roads and Rivers

• Often followed Native American trails.

• Important in areas with no-navigable rivers.

• Some of the important roads of the 17th and 18th centuries were:

  • The Great Wall

  • El Camino Real

  • Coastal Post Road

  • Wilderness Road

  • Zane’s Trace

  • Natchez Trace

Roads, Rivers ; Native American

Earliest inland transportation were ______ and ________ and usually followed __________ ___________ trails

• Some of the important roads of the 17th and 18th centuries

• The Great Wall

• El Camino Real

• Coastal Post Road

• Wilderness Road

• Zane’s Trace

• Natchez Trace

Lancaster Turnpike

The first graded road was the __________ ________ began in 1792. Pay-as-you-go Turnpikes

Plank or Corduroy

_______ or ________ roads were constructed using milled lumber or halved logs.

Cumberland

The first government-built road was the __________ or National Road, which began in 1812

1. Invention of the Steam Engine in 1800s

2. Need for long-distance transportation system

3. Need to transport heavy cargo

Water Travel developed simultaneously with roads, but expanded much faster due to:

Santa Fe Trail

The first great Western Route was the _____ ____ ______

True

True or False

Water Travel developed simultaneously with roads, but expanded much faster

they were short and shallow

Rivers were used for transportation, but their use was limited because why

they were intended to rectify the problems with rivers.

Why did they build canals?

Canals were

closed water systems into which water flow was controlled by gates.

Characteristics of Canals

1. straight

2. narrow (30-40 ft)

3. Shallow (4 ft)

4. stone-lined

5. The grade was leveled

• All canals collected tolls based on cargo weight and number of passengers

Landscape change based on developments of Transportation system

• Implication of transportation development on land use, planning, and design.

• The shape of urban growth was associated with type of transportation

Large Road Towns

: usually had a pattern with density radiating outwards from the main crossroads.

Small Road Towns

: often had no secondary street. The pattern was linear along the main street

River Towns:

were linear, but densely populated along the wharf area.

Canal Towns:

were among the first to have sites selected in an organized way. Linear in design

Land Tenure System

• Native Americans generally did not own the land. Their tenure tended to keep the landscape entirety

• However, Europeans divided the land for individual ownership which tended to break down the “wholeness” of the natural landscape

• Two major system of land survey systems were used by Euromericans:

  1. Metes and bounds

  2. Public land survey

1. Metes and bounds

2. Public land survey

• Two major system of land survey systems were used by Euromericans

Metes and Bounds

Land Boundaries were designated through a site-specific combination of:

• Natural landscape

• Human-made landmarks

• Distances

• Angles

• Bearing

• Pre-existing land ownership description

Advantages of Metes and Bounds

1. Tract size could be adjusted to accommodate for poor site conditions.

2. The system allowed for natural divides, such as streams, rivers, ridges, etc. to be used as property lines.

Disadvantages of Metes and Bounds

1. Imprecision of landmarks made fraud possible.

2. Trees died, iron posts removed, streams changed course, factors like that caused dispute.

Factors leading to change from Metes and Bounds to Public Survey System

1. Desire to settle the North American continent rapidly

2. The philosophical influence of the Enlightenment movement, which emphasized the scientific approach to organization of the natural world

Public Land Survey

• “An absolute land location system based on Cartesian Geometry”

• System developed under Thomas Jefferson’s guidance

Characteristics of Public Land Survey

1. All survey lines run north-south or east-west.

2. Tracts referenced by these lines are of fixed sizes.

3. Reference lines running north-south are known as principal meridians,

4. Reference lines running east-west are known as base-line.

Advantages of Public Land Survey

1. Allowed for fast and efficient measuring and recording of land

2. All tracts had one legal description

3. Uniform acreage was guaranteed for all settlers

Disadvantages of Public Land Survey

1. Earth’s curvature required some adjustment.

2. Importance of naturally occurring boundaries were ignored.

3. Fixed size of tracts ignored the carrying capacity of different classes of land.

4. The grid could not be easily adjusted to accommodate for later systems appended to it (ex; railroad)

5. The system changed the human-made world into a monotonous grid.

railroads

By 1870 ___________ had replaced canals and steamboats as a superior mode of transportation.

Trains

__________ could run year round, were safer, faster, and less expensive. Allowed for expansion to the WEST

funded roads

Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 did what?

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921-

started the creation of a national grid of roads

Highway Act of 1956

proposal for the Interstate Highway System- national standards- completed in 1992

Blue Ridge Parkway

• National parkway known for its beauty.

• 469 miles long

• Connects Shenandoah and the Great Smokey Mountains National Parks

• Took 52 years to complete

• Technology had to evolve