1800's transportation
The growth of the American economy began to boom in the first portion of the nineteenth century. Industry began to take hold of America, where it had been very slow to develop. Industry and agriculture were highly promoted by the increase in transportation technology. Transportation alone did not improve the economy; it facilitated the growth of industry and agriculture in the United States. The National Road, Railroads, and canals allowed the farmers to move produce to the east and factory owners to move their goods into the west and back again much more easily and quickly, thus causing the price of these goods to drop accordingly. Steamboats permitted the transport of goods throughout the year rather than just in the warm seasons. The lack of a keel on the boats allowed for further penetration into shallower waters and to more previously inaccessible regions of the waterways, and to move through muddy water much more easily. The Railroad system also allowed for more people to move out west and further develop agriculture in the virgin soil. The first demands for a national road were head back in 1740 when the few settlers in the "west" (the Ohio river valley) called for an avenue in which to transport their goods to an
Boiler explosion were, too, a fairly frequent incident. The mail could travel from Washington, D. The new National Road was used by everyone, from every walk of life; from cattle herders driving their animals to market, to the teamsters, like modern day truckers, were paid to transport goods as quickly as possible from point A to point B, to the settlers hoping to strike up a new life in the west. Cities and towns would invest in the railroads and offer them land to possibly convince one to run through their town. The need to transport the goods quickly helped to boost the economy of major "hub" cities like Chicago and Cincinnati; who facilitated the trade and in turn grew into centers of trade and commerce in the mid-west. to Indianapolis in 65 hours, which was an astonishing rate for the day. Long after rivers had frozen over, railroads could still operate at near peak efficiency. Fires were a very common occurrence, due mainly to the large furnaces used to drive the steam engines, and the fuel that the boats must carry to supply them. Links between the mid-west and east directed much of the trade up towards the east and new England, and away from the south, where there existed very few rail lines. Conditions aboard the trains remained unsophisticated and without a standard time in America, train timetables remained unsteady. Western settlers were in need of a way to connect them to the markets in the east. The first half of the nineteenth century was one of widespread innovation and economic development. Steamboats were also not the safest mode of transportation. The road, and its further expansion, ended in Vandalia, Illinois in 1852 due to squabbling over federal funding for internal improvements, and the dream of the road's advocates of it reaching the great Mississippi River was never achieved. The majority of the passengers were "deck" passengers, ones who paid quite a bit less, but were confined to sleep on the deck, as the name implies.
Common topics in this essay:
Mid-West Manufactures,
York Ohio,
Road Railroads,
National Road,
Illinois Central,
Chicago Cincinnati,
,
Erie Canal,
America American,
Vandalia Illinois,
national road,
stage lines,
industry agriculture,
nineteenth century,
move west,
transport quickly,
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Acceptance Essays
