The Evolution of Transportation and
the Shaping of America
Norman W. Garrick
Lecture 1
CE 2710
The Role of Transportation
Transportation is an essential backbone of modern society,
bringing goods to market and
allowing people to have access to work, services and recreation
The Role of Transportation
Transportation is often not an end unto itself,
but is rather a way to satisfy social or economic goals.
As planners and designers of transportation systems, it is crucial to always
keep in mind the primacy of these social and economic goals and remember
that transportation is about more than simply mobility.
The Role of Transportation
it is useful to consider that transportation is about access
Mobility is one way of achieving access
The Evolution of Transportation
It’s easy to overlook the crucial role that transportation plays
in shaping how we live today.
But an historic review shows how the evolution of transportation
has shaped where we live and how we live
As transportation technology has evolved
the fortunes of whole regions have been altered and
the structure and physical extent of our cities have been
shaped and re-shaped
The Early 1800s
Slow Going By Land and Sea
At the turn of the 1800s the only options for
long distance travel on land was SLOW - no more that 7 mph –
either by horse or coach for people
and by horse-drawn wagon for goods.
Goods from the Midwest were shipped down
the Mississippi to New Orleans and then by sailing ships to
east coast ports like Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Consequently, all the important cities of the time were those that
had advantageous locations on rivers or on the ocean.
The Early 1800s
The Steamboat
In 1811, the coming of the steamboat turned the counterclockwise
trade into a two way system by allowing travel up the river.
Also in that year the National Road was built, which provided a route
over the Appalachian Mountains linking the Ohio River to the
Potomac.
http://blog.insidetheapple.net/2010/08/robert-fulton-and-age-of-steam.html
1815 to 1835
The Canal Era
The next great leap forward was the construction of the Erie Canal,
which linked the Great Lakes at Buffalo to the Hudson River and
hence to New York City and to Europe beyond.
Barge near the
western end of
the Erie Canal, New
York, mid-1800s.
www.britannica.com
1815 to 1835
The Canal Era
1815 to 1835
The Canal Era
The Erie Canal helped cement New York City’s place
as the pre-eminent American city – as it became the gateway to the riches of
the American Midwest.
http://www.eriecanal.org/Syracuse.html
The Erie Canal also contributed to the prosperity of many cities
in the upper tier of New York State
1815 to 1835
The Canal Era
Farmington Canal
Many of the canals built
following the success of the
Erie Canal turned out to be
unprofitable and the canal
era was quickly superseded
by the next leap in
technology – the steam
railroad.
Circa 1825
The Coming of the Iron Horse
Rail transportation is centuries old - a flanged wheel on rail is a very
efficient way of moving large loads when the grade is very gentle.
The wagonways of Germany
C1550
Circa 1825
The Coming of the Iron Horse
The stream train came about with the invention of the locomotive
steam engine by George Stephenson in England in 1814.
The steam train quickly caught on in America with a popular
passenger rail service running alongside the Erie Canal by 1827. By
the 1850s the canal was almost totally eclipsed by rail travel.
Gold in California
… but how to get there?
There were two miserable choices.
 The sea route around the tip of South America that often
took more than six months.
 But the alternative wasn't much better -- a 2,000 mile
walk across the barren American outback.
http://www.pbs.org/goldrush/journey.html
The Pony Express
“Fast” Mail Service to the West
From St. Joseph, Mo to
Sacramento, Ca
2000 miles
Fastest Delivery: under 7
days
1860 to 1861
The Pony Express
Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry
fellows. Not over 18.
Must be expert riders.
Willing to risk death daily.
Orphans preferred.
The 1860s
The Transcontinental Railroad
Planning started in 1838
Construction in 1863
The 1860s
The Transcontinental Railroad
May 10 1869 – The two
railroads met at Promontory
Point, Utah
US Rail Road System 1870
http://users.humboldt.edu/ogayle/hist111/industrial.html
Chicago and the Railroads
In some ways the Erie Canal made NYC what it is today
The railroads played a similar role for Chicago
The Railroad and Time
Before the railroad there was no
need for time zones
Each city had its own ‘sun’ time
At 12:00 noon in Hartford it was
already 12:02 in Storrs
Unified time zones were put in
place in 1883
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Co
1929
www.middletownplanning.com/images/historic/1929_CT_Rail_Map.gif
The Mid-1950s
The peak of rail travel was in the 1940s. In the 1950s
and 60s rail passenger rail travel decreased precipitously
with the increased prominence of both automobile and air
travel.
Since the 1990s this decline has turned around and there
is a slow increase in rail travel in the USA - especially for
city travel, for commuting and for longer distance travel
in places like the Northeast and California.
Rail continues to be important for freight transportation.
Transportation in Cities
While rail transportation helped to knit the country together, it also
changed the structure of American cities.
Although the steam engine found some limited use for urban
transportation, it was the development of the electric railroad in 1888
which lead to a revolution in urban transportation. The electric railroad
replaced horse drawn rail cars in cities around the country.
Larger cities such as London, New York and Paris developed subway
systems, while other cities worldwide developed extensive tram or
streetcar systems.
The London Underground
the first subway - 1863
Chicago “El”
C 1907
Street Cars in Hartford
1863
connecticuthistory.org/a-revolution-in-horse-power-the-hartford-wethersfield-horse-railroad-goes-electric/
Street Cars in Hartford
1888
connecticuthistory.org/a-revolution-in-horse-power-the-hartford-wethersfield-horse-railroad-goes-electric/
Street Cars
King Street, Jamaica (c 1900)
www.tramz.com/jm/ki.html
The Late-1800s
Transportation in Cities
With this faster, more convenient mode of travel, cities were
able to expand beyond their old boundaries. For example,
workers in New York City were able to live in Connecticut and
Northern New Jersey with the coming of commuter rail
connecting their suburbs to the city.
In America, a system of ‘electric interurban’ connected almost
all urban areas from Connecticut to Illinois. In southern
California, the Pacific Electric Railroad ‘red cars’ connected cities
in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
By the mid-1950’s, most streetcars and trams in American cities
had been decommissioned and replaced by bus transit. The
decrease in rail travel for urban travel began to turn around by
the mid 1990s with the development of new rail systems in over
50 American cities.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
End of the LA Red Cars