HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION
PRESENTED BY:
KRISTINE HANZEL C. CUETO
Early Man
•
•
•
•
Walked
Dragged, rolled, or pushed what he or she needed to transport
Alone or as a group
Early “roads” were worn paths
First Vehicle
Man Becomes Mobile
The earliest evidence of the wheel appears in
the mid-4th millennium BC. The wheel is a
circular component that fits on an axle.
This invention is a simple machine that allows
heavy objects to be moved easily facilitating
movement or transportation while supporting
a load, or performing labor.
The development of the wheel led to the
development
of
wheeled
vehicles.
First Roads
Early Transport
Road Upgrade
In the West..
The Silk Road and Connectors
Early Pavement Technology
Vehicle “Upgrade”
Grand Canal System of China
In addition to the Silk
Routes to the west, the
Chinese developed a series
of canals. This system
joined farmlands to major
cities. This allowed food
and other goods to reach
markets.
Finding the way..
Notable Voyages
Getting Steamed!
Paving the way..
John Loudon MacAdam in 1815 builds
hard-surfaced roads in England. He
invented a method that simplified what
had been considered state of the art at
that point. Single-sized aggregate layers
of small stones, with a coating of binder
as a cementing agent, are mixed in an
open-structured roadway. These roads
were called macadam roads.This was the
beginning of the modern pavement era.
Riding the Rails
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•
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•
1863: First subway line in London
1869: Transcontinental Railroad in U.S.
1882: First electrified railroads
Riding the Rails As steam engines were
applied to rail engines, the age of railroads
began.
• The Railroad Era:1825: Stockton and
Darlington Railway in England becomes the
first common carrier to use locomotive
power
• 1863: First subway line opens in London
• 1869: Transcontinental railroad completed in
the United States.
Sailing the Seas
1825: Erie Canal opens. This canal was the longest canal built
in early US. It was 363 miles long and created a domestic
route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great lakes.
1850’s: Age of clipper ships. A clipper was a very fast sailing
ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a
square rig. They were generally narrow for their length,
could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century
standards, and had a large total sail area. The boom years of
the Clipper Ship Era began in 1843 as a result of the growing
demand for a more rapid delivery of tea from China. It
continued with the discovery of gold in California and
Australia in 1848 and 1851, and ended with the opening of
the Suez Canal in 1869.
1869: Suez Canal opens. The Suez Canal is an artificial sealevel waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea
and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years
of construction work, it allows ship transport between
Europe and Asia without navigation around Africa.
1914: Panama Canal opens. The Panama Canal is
approximately 40 miles long. It traverses Panama and
connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The Auto Debuts
1880’s: Daimler and Benz in
Germany
build
the
first
successful automobiles with
gasoline engines. This was
quickly followed by Henry Fords
“Model-T”
which
provided
affordable
access
to
the
automobile for most people.
1916: Congress passes the
Federal Aid Road Act which
allocates funding for roadway
construction.
The Modern Highway
1940: Pennsylvania Turnpike
Opens - one of the first
expressways in the United States
1956: Interstate Highway Act
passed by Congress. The building
of the Interstate System was the
largest public works project in
history. Just over 40,000 miles of
interstate highways were built.
Taking Flight
THANK YOU!
References
The history of transportation (c)(4)(A). (2017, August 23). SlidePlayer - Upload and Share
your PowerPoint presentations. https://slideplayer.com/slide/7905700/
History of transportation. (2020, November 5).
BYJUS. https://byjus.com/physics/transportation-history/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=650VbgXWcIg