The Transportation Revolution
The Transportation Revolution
- state and federally sponsored infrastructure projects link producers to markets
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