The Transportation Revolution

The Transportation Revolution

• state and federally sponsored infrastructure projects link producers to markets
  • highways
  • canals

Canals

• Erie canal, 1825
• 350 mile “artificial river”
• Lake Erie to Hudson river
• northwest territory tied to NYC international markets
• upstate NY rapidly transformed, NY state becomes country’s economic center
• national canal-building boom follows, usually with government sponsorship

Steamboats

• first commercial line, 1807, Hudson river
• rivers were 2-way routes
• speed and power drastically increased “the annihilation of time and space”
• key to growth of Mississippi Valley and first western cities

Railroads

• began around the same time, but grew more slowly
• first long-distance line, Baltimore and Ohio, 1827
• government-sponsored like canals
• coal gradually replaced wood which led to first large-scale use of fossil fuels