Transportation Revolution United States I After 1815, Dramatic improvements in transportation Roads Steamboats Canals Railroads Create interregional linkages, previously not in existance Condition in 1815 Rural nation—highly fragmented Transportation ranged from primitive to nonexistent West of Appalachians—almost totally undeveloped Western transportation Most settlers lived near shores of Ohio/Mississippi River System Float products down river—from Pittsburgh about 30 days At New Orleans—shipped to Eastern ports Boats then torn apart for lumber and boatsmen walked home on Natchez Trace Upstream Transport Difficult and Expensive Poling up river—15 miles per day Results Limited goods Expensive prices East-West Natural flow Hauling goods over mountains expensive Roads National Road Lancaster Turnpike Baltimore to Wheeling, Virginia by 1818 Linked Philadelphia, Lancaster and Pittsburgh New York Major road from Albany to Lake Erie by 1812 By 1821—4,000 miles of road Problems with roads Expensive Especially for bulky items Oats example Hard to maintain Often not linked together Privately owned No common plan Steamboats Key to western development John Fitch and Robert Fulton Flatbottom boat development Clermont 1807 1st riverboat by 1815 Booms New Orleans as major port Massive flow of good—up and down river Freight charges reduced Interior opened to development Dangers of Steamboats Very unsafe Short life span of boats Boiler explosions Fires High loss of life Canals Steamboats conquer western rivers N-S flow to Gulf of Mexico Still looking for effective way to reach eastern seaboard Canal was option Engineering Costs New York looked promising Good geography—Lake Ontario Shoreline Erie Canal DeWitt Clinton—key figure Believed possible—only 570 foot rise Convinces NYS legislature to build 364 mile canal Longest to this point 28 miles Begun in 1819 Finished 1825 Most was handdug through forest lands New immigrant labor Success Immediate success Dramatically lowers transportation costs $100 to $15 per ton Cuts travel time to 8 days Urban Development Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse Agricultural Development Canal Boom Encouraged other states to develop comparable projects Set off 20 year canal boom Some effective, other much less so Pennsylvania Canal—Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Combined canal and railroad tracking Most went bust because of overbuilding Railroads First railroads connected cities to rivers and canals B & O Railroad linked Baltimore to the rivers of the west Approx. 3,000 miles built between 1820 and 1840 Did not constitute a national or regional network Not until 1850’s did this emerge Impact Threatened to make other forms of transportation obsolete. New York Central vs. Erie Canal Speed and low overall cost Ability to go almost anywhere Geography not a serious barrier. Overall impact Reduced time and money it took to move heavy goods Improvements in speed Allowed for a national market to emerge Overall costs of moving goods dropped 95% between 1815 and 1860. Self-sustaining domestic markets Facilitates foreign trade