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

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