Transportation changes
America
Population
 Moving West
A. Counting of the population was called
Census
a. US population in 1790 was nearly
4,000,000
b. US population by 1820 had grown to
10,000,000
Roads and turnpikes
 A. Toll roads built and used to move west
were called Turnpikes
 B. Corduroy roads were Roads made from
logs
The Fairview
Inn near
Baltimore, a
stopping
place on the
National
Road, 1827
National Road
National Road or Cumberland Road
 The National Road or Cumberland Road was the
first major improved highway in the United States to
be built by the federal government.
 a. Funded in 1806
 b. Construction began heading west in 1811 at
Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. It
crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern
Pennsylvania, reaching Wheeling, West Virginia), on
the Ohio River in 1818.
 c. From Cumberland to Vandalia Illinois
 Plans were made to continue through St.
Louis, at confluence of the Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers, and to Jefferson City
upstream on the Missouri. Following the
panic of 1837 however, funding ran dry and
construction was stopped at Vandalia, Illinois,
after crossing the states of Ohio and Indiana.
 Beyond the National Road's eastern terminus
at Cumberland and toward the Atlantic coast,
a series of private turnpikes were completed
in 1824, connecting the National Road with
Baltimore, Maryland and its port on
Chesapeake Bay;
 The approximately 620-mile (1,000 km) long
National Road provided a connection
between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and a
gateway to the West for thousands of settlers.
It was the first road in the U.S. to use the new
macadam road surfacing. Single-sized
aggregate layers of stone with a coating of
binder as a cementing agent are mixed in an
open-structured macadam

 Construction of the first macadamized road in the United States
(1823). In the foreground, workers are breaking stones "so as
not to exceed 6 ounces in weight or to pass a two-inch ring
River travel
 A. Travel in east was difficult because
a. Most major rivers flowed in a North – South
direction
b. Traveling upstream against the current was
slow and difficult
Robert Fulton
 Steam Travel
 James Rumsey, John Fitch
early experiments
 Robert Fulton hired to build
steamship to go from New
York to Albany
Cleremont
 The Cleremont
was 140 ft long
and 14 ft wide
 In 1807 it traveled
from NY to Albany
(150 mi) in 32
hours compared to
4 days by sail
Canals
Artificial Rivers
 Dewitt
Clinton
wanted to
link NY
City to the
Great
Lakes
Erie Canal
 363 miles -Proposed in 1808 and completed in 1825,
the canal links the waters of Lake Erie in the west to
the Hudson River in the east. An engineering marvel
when it was built, some called it the Eighth Wonder of
the World.
Erie Canal
 It included 18 aqueducts to
carry the canal over ravines
and rivers, and 83 locks,
with a rise of 568 feet from
the Hudson River to Lake
Erie. It was 4 feet deep and
40 feet wide, and floated
boats carrying 30 tons of
freight. A ten foot wide
towpath was built along the
bank of the canal for the
horses and/or mules which
pulled the boats and their
driver, often a young boy
(sometimes referred to by
later writers as a "hoggee").
 In order to keep pace with the growing
demands of traffic, the Erie Canal was
enlarged between 1836 and 1862. The
"Enlarged Erie" was 70 feet wide and 7 feet
deep, and could handle boats carrying 240
tons. The number of locks was reduced to 72.
Railroads
 The railroad was first
developed in Great Britain. A
man named GEORGE
STEPHENSON successfully
applied the steam technology
of the day and created the
world's first successful
locomotive. The first engines
used in the United States
were purchased from the
STEPHENSON WORKS in
England. Even rails were
largely imported from
England until the Civil War
 It is interesting, in conclusion, to take a bird's-
eye view of the early development of the
railroads after the construction of the Granite
Railway of Quincy, the first railroad in
America.
B & O Railroad
 In 1828, ground was broken for the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, and on August 8, 1829,
the first steam locomotive, "The Stourbridge
Lion," was used in transportation by the
Delaware and Hudson Company.
The locomotive earned the name
Lion from the picture of a lion's
face that was painted on the front
of the locomotive by its builder.
The Stourbridge portion of the
name is from the town of
Stourbridge in England, where
the locomotive was
manufactured..
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
 Baltimore, the third largest city in
the nation in 1827, had not
invested in a canal. Yet, Baltimore
was 200 miles closer to the
frontier than New York and soon
recognized that the development
of a railway could make the city
more competitive with New York
and the Erie Canal in transporting
people and goods to the West.
Tom Thumb
 On August 28, 1830, the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad opened and
Peter Cooper's "Tom Thumb," the
first American steam locomotive to
run on American railroads, was
successfully operated
 New railroads came swiftly. In
1830, the SOUTH CAROLINA
CANAL AND RAIL-ROAD
COMPANY was formed to draw
trade from the interior of the state.
It had a steam locomotive built at
the West Point Foundry in New
York City, called THE BEST
FRIEND OF CHARLESTON, the
first steam locomotive to be built for
sale in the United States.
 On November 2, 1830, "The Best Friend of
Charleston" made its successful trip on the
South Carolina Railroad. The "West Point"
was the second locomotive built in the United
States for service on this same railroad, and
its trial trip was on March 5, 1831
The West Point
Mohawk & Hudson
 A year later, the Mohawk & Hudson railroad
reduced a 40-mile wandering canal trip that
took all day to accomplish to a 17-mile trip
that took less than an hour. Its first steam
engine was named the DeWitt Clinton after
the builder of the Erie Canal.
 On August 9, 1831, the "De Witt Clinton," the
first locomotive to draw passenger cars ever
run in the State of New York, made its first
excursion trip, and from this early day on the
story of the development of the railroad
system in America fills volumes.
 Although the first railroads were successful,
attempts to finance new ones originally failed
as opposition was mounted by turnpike
operators, canal companies, stagecoach
companies and those who drove wagons.
Western Settlement
How did better transportation affect westward
expansions?
It shortened the travel time reduced the cost
and made travel more comfortable which
made westward movement more attractive